Pressing I Voted against my front pocket, I make sure everyone will know I can ink bubbles too. The chair-bound retiree coughs his disapproval at my lack of decorum. He can tell I haven’t graced his realm before. Leaving St. Peter the Apostle’s voting complex, I dip my fingers into the marble holy-bowl and taste the water.  Don’t mind me sir, not a Catholic, just a first-timer. Transmuted by finger-water, I emerge a citizen – or at least with the self-importance of one. Outside, a sculpted Christ pickets the entrance. His hollow eyes survey his house where citizens discount the substance of canned politicians – usurers taking interest on the faith of neighbors.

 

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Scot P. Langland has lived all over Alabama. He currently lives and writes in Birmingham while pursuing an MA in creative writing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He writes about the people he has come to know and the environments they inhabit.