Election
John Davis
And everyone hummed.
Bartenders cleaning their pistols hummed their
chants of The One. Vote for The One.
Down at the factory of jerrybuilt dreams, the quick
echoes of skill saws hummed into plywood.
Former lovers hummed their former phone numbers, dyed the
gray from their wicker-like hair,
hummed and fixed their lipstick.
In the precinct, the car thief, unashamed as a washrag,
jammed a hand into his pocket, pulled his teacher's
keys, flicked them like pennies while his jailer
licked her lips, hummed in her palm and her
middle finger, hummed The One. Yeah The One.
Now pilots hummed the hum
on their crossing patterns, hummed in their headsets.
Polltakers hummed Amen and emptied
quarts of wine. Incumbents screeched.
Runners and drummers hummed, The One. The One. We're
surely saved. This one will gather
tribes of gravity and angels and find hums
until ruined cities give up their ways.
Voting for The One, the figure skaters spun their bodies like hard cases
whipping their skate music into gray
x-ray-like shades of ice.
Yes, cautious as Chinese verse, the One had won. What did he stand for?
Zephyrs advanced, spreading the pear blossom hum.
~ ~ ~
SEPT 2026
John Davis
And everyone hummed.
Bartenders cleaning their pistols hummed their
chants of The One. Vote for The One.
Down at the factory of jerrybuilt dreams, the quick
echoes of skill saws hummed into plywood.
Former lovers hummed their former phone numbers, dyed the
gray from their wicker-like hair,
hummed and fixed their lipstick.
In the precinct, the car thief, unashamed as a washrag,
jammed a hand into his pocket, pulled his teacher's
keys, flicked them like pennies while his jailer
licked her lips, hummed in her palm and her
middle finger, hummed The One. Yeah The One.
Now pilots hummed the hum
on their crossing patterns, hummed in their headsets.
Polltakers hummed Amen and emptied
quarts of wine. Incumbents screeched.
Runners and drummers hummed, The One. The One. We're
surely saved. This one will gather
tribes of gravity and angels and find hums
until ruined cities give up their ways.
Voting for The One, the figure skaters spun their bodies like hard cases
whipping their skate music into gray
x-ray-like shades of ice.
Yes, cautious as Chinese verse, the One had won. What did he stand for?
Zephyrs advanced, spreading the pear blossom hum.
~ ~ ~
SEPT 2026
