• Joshua Walker is an Oklahoma poet whose work has appeared in Potomac Review, Solarpunk Magazine, Southern Florida Poetry Journal, Poetry Scotland, and elsewhere. He is the author of The Least Weird Person Awake and writes about wonder, hardship, faith, and the strange beauty hidden in ordinary life.

The Lesson Holds

In 2024 a few of us went together
to vote.
Two cars,
a small family errand.
The line moved slow.
A volunteer handed out stickers
and pointed toward the booths.
My wife’s aunt leaned over.
“So who’d you vote for?” she asked,
like the answer belonged to the room.
I told her plain:
“I voted for the person I think
is better suited for the job.”
She waited for the rest.
But that was all I had to say.
Standing there
I heard my grandfather again—
a car idling on a Tuesday afternoon,
telling a boy
that freedom means you vote
and that your vote
is your business.
Some lessons
take a lifetime
to answer.