On Voting for the Least Bad Candidate

A poem about our current political moment...

They say 
VOTE!
But then they
Won’t
Give us anyone
Worth voting for. 

A vote 
To destroy society
Slowly
With a smile
And eloquent words
Is the same as
A vote 
To destroy society
Quickly
With a scowl
And abusive rants. 

We pray 
“Give us this day
Our daily bread!”

But if they won’t work
To provide bread
For all
To provide health
For all
To provide education
For all
To provide opportunity
For all
To provide justice
For all
They aren’t worth voting for. 

We pray 
“Deliver us from evil!”

But if they deliver us 
Into evil
To maximize profits
To minimize costs
To increase market share
For war mongers
And drug dealers
And prison industrialists
And nature despoilers
And kleptocrat cronies
And all who destroy life
As they kneel before death
While they gratify Mammon
With eyes shut and mouths open
Then they aren’t worth voting for. 

We pray
"Thy Kingdom come!"

And we know THAT Kingdom
Is impossible to build on our own;
It is always just over
The Horizon
And the best we can do
Is a rough approximation;
Because Utopian visions
Become Dystopian nightmares
When we blindly believe
Our refuse doesn't stink.
But does Realpolitik
Mean we just give up
Put away our shovels
And let our feces 
Pile up everywhere?
Can we at least shovel together
And work together
To make this world
A little less crappy?
Can we at least vote for people
Who will roll up their sleeves
And grab a shovel
And work with us
To demand the impossible?

Want us to vote?
Give us someone
Worth voting
For.