The mighty pencil

It’s just a pencil

Making a mark in a specific place

On a specific piece of paper

On a specific day.

It only takes a second or two,

No time at all.

Such a simple thing.

But that pencil mark

In that place

On that paper

On that day

Is a momentous political act

Which can change the world.

That pencil mark can channel everything you know and care about

And your hope for a better future.

It won’t give you everything you want,

It’s not the only way to make change,

But don’t let anyone tell you it’s worthless.

It’s not a TV show, it’s not a foregone conclusion and they’re not ‘all the same’.

That pencil mark connects you to all the others making a similar mark,

It’s your transmission belt to a power beyond your own.

So, on that day, in that place, on that paper,

Wield your mighty pencil.

See also:

The habits of democracy (May 2017)

Voting and the habit of democracy (May 2014)

The Mathematics of Survival (Apr 2017)

Abdellatif Laâbi: attesting against barbarism (Dec 2016)

Seeking refuge in poetry (Sep 2015)

Familiale (Jacques Prévert) (Mar 2019)