Goddammit, you gotta vote because
By Tara Campbell
when hate comes marching into town
it bashes streetlights left and right
incited by a raving clown.
They’ll yank the phone- and power lines down
to shock and choke us in the night
when hate comes marching into town.
We’ll stand together—black, white, brown
queer, Muslim, Jew—against the blight
incited by a raving clown.
When angry men fling fists around
we’ll arm the women (impolite!)
when hate comes marching into town,
and we’ll sing loud enough to drown
them out, when they shout all their shite
incited by a raving clown.
But only votes retake the ground,
rebuild, and reignite the lights
when hate comes marching into town
incited by a raving clown.
Tara Campbell (www.taracampbell.com) is a Kimbilio Fellow, a fiction editor at Barrelhouse, and an MFA candidate at American University. Prior publication credits include SmokeLong Quarterly, Masters Review, Jellyfish Review, Booth, and Strange Horizons. Her novel, TreeVolution, was published in 2016, followed in 2018 by Circe’s Bicycle. Her third book, a short story collection called Midnight at the Organporium, will be released by Aqueduct Press in 2019.