Tricks and Treats
Don’t be frightened by the monsters
in television ads promising prosperity
and predicting pandemonium.
Don’t be frightened by the beggars
in your email, requesting treats
to prevent someone else’s tricks.
Don’t be frightened by politics,
be angry that money decides elections
instead of We the People.
Election Day is three weeks and a day away and I’m very angry. I’ve been encouraging my fellow citizens to vote and now it’s time. I plan to vote early, in person, next Monday. Have you already mailed in your ballot? What’s your plan to vote?
About Bartholomew Barker
Bartholomew Barker is one of the organizers of Living Poetry, a collection of poets and poetry lovers in the Triangle region of North Carolina. His first poetry collection, Wednesday Night Regular, written in and about strip clubs, was published in 2013. His second, Milkshakes and Chilidogs, a chapbook of food inspired poetry was served in 2017. He was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2021. Born and raised in Ohio, studied in Chicago, he worked in Connecticut for nearly twenty years before moving to Hillsborough where he makes money as a computer programmer to fund his poetry habit.
I voted by mail.
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Good work, JM!
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Yeah…watch the stock market as the climate changes even as ugly pumpkin speaks. Good poem. I’ll never look at pumpkin the same.
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Sorry to ruin pumpkins for you.
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We must vote for the change we wish to see! So much so that the Trumpkin cannot affect the outcome even if he tried.
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Agreed! Prepare for shenanigans.
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Amazing write and just what I’ve been feeling!
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Glad it resonated with you. What’s your plan to vote?
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In Colorado, we have our ballots mailed. We are filling them out tonight and dropping them off tomorrow. There is no way I’m not voting – but I have voted pretty much since I was old enough and I’m 50 now. :-)
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Excellent!
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