(A heads up: this poem is for voting age and up. )

Did anyone

anywhere

freak you out,

when you were young?

Did they

do they

shame you? Offend you? Embarrass you? Insult you?

Misunderstood you? Misunderstand you?

If you distrust or won’t vote for

whoever to be a political leader

-which one of these candidates

reminds you most

of the one

in your family and anywhere

that scares you most?

Why?
Why this asking?

Please take a deep breath

And let’s step back together and look at this from a safe and protecting

distance. You may or may not read on. And either is Okay.

Here is a kind and probing question, to begin.

“Do you see how what frights you experienced, in your youth,

may have influenced your political views now?”

What did that frightening person look like? Sound like? Smell like?
Were their frights in your life daily?

Did that one person or more hurt you?
Neglect you? Betray you? Reject you?

Boss you around?

Molest?

Were there arguments?
Domestic violence?

Arrests?

Were you punished?

Slapped around?

Gaslit – or told “You are the crazy one”?

What happened?

Were you often told often by them

the word, “No”?

Relax. Deep breath. Deep breath again.

Remember anymore details?

In their talking, in what you heard, what did they value?

Did they sound like a
Democrat Republican Independent Green Party Libertarian Other

An extremist Left or Right. Center. What Race. How Rich. How Poor.

If when in you can ask, “How am I treating others like I was treated

as a child?”

“Am I acting out with my political support as a child rebelling,

or am I voting, and supporting as a wise adult?”

If in when before pausing and placing this poem down,

here are five more questions,

”Is it possible that now I can feel safer, better protected,

and grateful,

in better knowing why I vote for and support

– who I do –

because I felt better loved, cared for and better understood,

at least I felt I was – as a child,

by those who remind me of

who I politically support and I vote for now?”

“And, seeing through my adult eyes of my child’s eyes,

did they have my best interests in mind?”

”How in what ways am I influenced in what I do

with a voting ballot,

by my good and

my bad

memories?”

”And why o why does this poet Deb

keep on writing poems about nonconscious death anxiety?”

©️February 2025 Much Love, Deb Poems