Thumbtacks

Election Day,

trying to avoid the news

trying to think of anything

but this election

On a friend’s page,

I see a picture of a pinup girl,

wonder what she was like

when she wasn’t a fantasy

I feel guilty for looking,

but I look anyway,

tell myself that the person

she was that day

wanted to be looked at,

wanted to be a fantasy

restrained by thumbtacks

on someone’s wall

But I know most of the time

she wanted to be human,

so I try to imagine her

fully dressed, fully valued

And wonder if she was ever allowed

to live outside someone else’s fantasy

and I tell myself,

this is just one of the reasons

it’s important to vote

11-3-20