1
The century speeds along
Sound & dust & color & light
Clouds speed over ballgames & wars
Nerves hanging off them Women watch
early election results Stressed-out women
in hats & choirs Women sitting under
suburban stars Women with husbands
or wives Housed or unhoused women
with herbs or guns Women with
friends & cats who are always tired
New medium or old to the world order
Who pull their masks tightly after the fires
2
Over 52,000,000 minutes... ...since the 19th
Amendment,,,,,, Over 26,000,000 women voted
after that ;;;;;; mostly only white women because
of the poll tax... Now let’s just think about that...
There are 53 minutes in a micro-century:::
We place extra dots as eyes for extra vision: : :
There are two periods in the 19th Amendment
i place them here . . for women
who want to be women or don’t
We were dodging the little zeroes between mystery
& meaning.,. history & hope We were walking or
driving i was flying left till my left wing broke
3
Some women vote with armed guards Some
have their forearms stamped The branches
of the oak are breaking off The particle
spirits are being used up There are two
men in amendment There is gerry in gerrymander
There are eyeless vans from Amazon outside
like hearses carrying the corpse of profit
Some women do not like to vote They think
the revolution will come faster The land
is blighted Muriel Is weather better if you
order on line Is earth’s orbit polyethelene
i thought of not voting but there isn’t time
4
The great dead teach the living not to hate or
to try to love imperfectly At what point
did voting really begin Wyoming (oddly)
was the first state Some practiced law
but couldn’t vote Seneca Falls 1848
Lucy Stone abolitionist could not vote
Impossible to reconcile what you want
with what you are …… i’m voting extra
with my shoe ✔✔✔ Applying text corrupter
here for how long justice takes 1̸̡̛͍̫̝͚̍̒͊̂2̴̨̙̱͚̀̽̒͘͠ͅ3̷̻̪̥̗̥̈́̽̎̓͗1̸̡̛͍̫̝͚̍̒͊̂2̴̨̙̱͚̀̽̒͘͠ͅ3̷̻̪̥̗̥̈́̽̎̓͗
We leafleted in 1968 Come out of your
house & stand now You count too
5
The right of citizens to vote,,,’’’ shall not (she’ll not)
be denied or abridged /// ;;; ;;;
(i’m adding 46 marks of punctuation for 46
years till 1966 Voting Rights Act)
by the U******nited States or by any State
.…..>>>>>> & the names will survive
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper,,,,,, Hallie
Quinn Brown . . Mary Church Terrell
& Congress shall not remove cage kill & undo
citizens because of age ability gender race
etc. Some vote despite perfectionism
Messy marks in tiny tiny hollow squares
6
i voted first in 1972 tear gas My Lai Weather
Underground mostly voted against things then
Agent Orange the draft had gone
to the trailer park with leaflets We were new to
the Pill nice sex or terrible with skinny stoned boys
Smog in LA We stayed in the dorm burning incense
Can’t remember who i voted for ankles showing
under the curtain Metal bar on top
like you were taking a shower Mostly always voted
Just had the habit Once wrote in my friend
The land is blighted Adrienne Absentee ballot
i tear the numbered stub 
then i mail it in
7
Seatmate on the plane speaks first
older woman taking care of herself dental
assistant from Virginia i suspect she voted for t
Friendly over-60s whiteness is our commons
Our legs stick to fake leather flying over some
cleaned up rivers still adding carbon to the air
Her $12 cheese plate dwindles We talk We both
love our jobs She puts small instruments in patients’
mouths i use small instruments with patience
She’s going to Las Vegas to play black jack Laughs
Our story sails along inside oblivion
Our electrons speed inside oblivion
8
The yellow minutes of our coasts
The saturation of our voices
Centuries of women sick on a ship
Decades of women sick at the office
Women in tents in a marketplace
where the orange canary sings beside
the masterpiece they made At times i hear
the queen of ants At times i feel the great
dead choose for us to keep unreasonable
joy & revolution in the craft we made
We fed refusal to the storm to live
in the dream in revolt in realism
for Adrienne Rich & Muriel Rukeyser
for my granddaughters
for JB, AH, ER, JR
Copyright © 2020 Brenda Hillman. This poem was co-commissioned by the Academy of American Poets and the New York Philharmonic as part of the Project 19 initiative.