Horror

Strange that our Election Day
Is scarcely but a week away
From Halloween.

Strange, too, it seems

That we elect our nation’s head
Ever so close
To the Day of the Dead.

But stranger still we do not see

The leaders we select, the knaves,
Are monsters from our mental graves.

We vote for ghosts of yesterday.

We vote for zombies of today.
We vote for vampires of tomorrow,
Without thought to future sorrow. 

Indeed the choice has often been

The lesser of two evils.
But few can stare into the eyes
Of a horror more primeval.

The beast that shambles

To the voting booth,
With greedy eye and hungry tooth,
That tears at flesh
And rends the truth,
That creature with an empty mind
And shrunken heart
Who casts his ballot in the dark -

More terrible and stark

Than a rapacious leader
Is that voter who,
Without knowledge,
Without courage,
In that final hour
Bestows the leader’s power.