By Kamilah Aisha Moon
It was hers.
She had this choice
behind curtained bliss,
Dad’s chest full on the other side
as her tapered hand
pulled the lever.
No matter how wide
the final margin,
a lone ballot
never counted so much.
Poem copyright ©2013 by Kamilah Aisha Moon, “1st Vote” from She Has a Name (Four Way Books, 2013.) Poem reprinted by permission of the author and the publisher.
Poet Bio
Kamilah Aisha Moon was the author of the poetry collections Starshine & Clay (2017), a CLMP Firecracker Award finalist featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered” as a collection that captures America in poetry, and She Has a Name (2013), a finalist for both the Audre Lorde and Lambda Literary Awards. She was an assistant professor of creative writing at Agnes Scott College before her death in 2021.
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