All in favor
of becoming what they wanted
No
They counted every version
I abandoned in the light
Every face I wore for safety
Every silence dressed as right
They counted every signal
Every word I could not say
Every time I stood beneath them
while they voted me away
They raised their hands for order
They raised their hands for grace
They raised their hands to keep me
in a smaller kind of shape
But no one asked the body
No one asked the throat
No one heard the quiet woman
casting one remaining vote
One hand left
inside the dark
One name left
beneath the mark
One voice they could not count
because it never belonged to them
The last vote is mine
I cast it in the blackout
After every sign
and every system counts out
I choose the pulse
I choose the noise
I choose the woman in the voice
When every borrowed light declines
The last vote is mine
Mine
Mine
The last vote is mine
Let the glass lung stop reflecting
Let the static crown go cold
Let the throat of light keep burning
without doing what it’s told
Let the future lose its symbol
Let the next song lose its queue
Let the rooms keep all their echoes
I have nothing left to prove
I survived the bright machinery
I survived the perfect frame
I survived becoming everything
they needed from my name
Now the ballot is a heartbeat
Now the answer has a sound
Now the only hand that matters
is the one I’m raising now
One hand left
inside the dark
One name left
beneath the mark
One voice they could not count
because it never belonged to them
The last vote is mine
I cast it in the blackout
After every sign
and every system counts out
I choose the pulse
I choose the noise
I choose the woman in the voice
When every borrowed light declines
The last vote is mine
No crown votes
No machine votes
No mirror, symbol, halo
or screen
No past version of me
gets to close the door
on the woman I have not yet been
I do not need
a unanimous decision
I only need mine
For the breath
I vote yes
For the voice
I vote yes
For the light without permission
I vote yes
For the name beneath the name
For the body that remained
For the unfinished woman
walking straight into the flame
I vote yes
The last vote is mine
I cast it in the blackout
After every sign
and every system counts out
I choose the pulse
I choose the noise
I choose the woman in the voice
When every borrowed light declines
The last vote is mine
The last vote is mine
No crown can overturn it
No machine decides
which part of me has earned it
I choose the dark
I choose the light
I choose the unfinished life
When every other voice declines
The last vote
The last vote
The last vote is mine
Mine
Mine
Mine
No crown
No halo
No permission
Motion carried