poem
Volume 35, Number 4

My Ballot is Broken

I searched everywhere
for a box to check
          that would stop the genocide

I wanted to blacken the bubble
that voted no more bombs
          or bullets or fighter jets

I would gladly have punched a chad
to elect an end to the shooting
          and the torture and the sexual assault

There isn’t even a write-in line
for no more destruction of hospitals
          and schools and water supplies

My ballot is broken
busted faulty defective
          nonfunctional kaput

It lets me vote only
for genocide or for genocide
          with a frowny face emoji


—Flavian Mark Lupinetti