Ask No Questions but the Price of Votes¹

If we don’t Vote for a Lizard –
The Wrong Lizard might get in²
Republican or Democrat depending
Upon where the Money comes From
And Goes: whose Asses are Covered³
They teach us that the Supreme act of
Citizenship is to choose among Saviors⁴
Democracy is but a Name – we Vote? What
Does that mean? It means we Choose between
Two Bodies of Real, if not Avowed, Autocrats⁵
It is better to Vote for what you Want and Not get it
Than to Vote for what you Don’t Want and get that⁶
Vote for Rivers and Salmon in the streams, Vote
For Oceans Flowing from Inside your Dreams⁷
The Choice between one Political Crook and
Another is too Small for Serious thought⁸
Cast your Whole Vote: not just a Strip
Of Paper – but your Entire Influence⁹
A Revolution Expressing the Will of
The people is an Election Everyday¹⁰

¹ Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes
² Douglas Adams, So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
³ Ed Roberson, Party Sonnets
⁴ Howard Zinn, A People’s History of the United States
⁵ Helen Keller, Letter to an English Woman-Suffragist
⁶ Eugene Debs
⁷ Cass McCombs & Angel Olsen, Don’t Just Vote
⁸ Richard Wright, Black Boy
⁹ Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience
¹⁰ Fidel Castro, May Day Celebration 1961