Postcard - a poem by SOMA Action volunteer Yana Kane

Dear Likely Non-Voter,

as I write this postcard to you,

trying to find just the right words

to convince you to vote,

as I slow down my hand 

to be legible in passing to you 

the information you might need 

to get your ballot, fill it properly and send it on time,

I try to picture your hands 

taking this piece of thin cardboard 

from your mailbox,

your eyes scanning my lines.

Perhaps you are older than me.

Maybe your fingers with swollen joints shake, 

as you close your eyes.

Sometimes simply staying alive,

holding yourself together 

takes so much work,

it is hard to spare any effort 

to attend to the world 

outside the familiar room. 

Perhaps you are younger. 

Your lips, still retaining the plumpness

of your recent childhood,

twist wryly: 

here is yet another so-called adult

trying to tell you what is the right thing to do.

One of all those people

who for decades have been making a mess of things.

Now they turn to you with hope in their eyes,

now they proclaim: “It is up to you to fix the world.” 

Perhaps with a single glance 

at my wording, my handwriting, my name

you guess 

that I look, sound, live differently

from yourself, 

from the people you hold closest to your heart. 

The thread that connects us

is so thin, as to be invisible.

As I touch it, I am not sure

Whether it has the strength

to transmit the meaning 

without breaking. 

I hope you find your own words

that would convince you:

your decision matters,

it is worth your while 

to not be silent, to take part

in creating the news 

that will meet us the next day.

Yana Kane

09/2020