"I Haven't Called You Since The Election" by Steve Edwards

In honor of National Poetry Month, I am featuring special poems by special poets each Monday. Here is a timely, relevant piece by author Steve Edwards.

I Haven't Called You Since The Election

because somebody else’s son
got deported & sleeps
tonight in a concrete cell;
& somebody else’s son
got denied sanctuary
from a war he didn’t start
or want, & what’s he tell
his wife & kids?; & because
somebody else’s son
died in a raid
the guy you voted for ordered
over dinner like a round
of drinks. I guess I thought
it’s what you wanted,
my absence—how otherwise
explain a choice that does
to somebody else’s son
what you wouldn’t want done
to yours? & imagine
what this note would say
if instead I’d been your daughter.