Egyptian democracy (3 Exodus)

Voting heats up in Cairo

The Jerusalem Post, 24 May 2012

Haven’t lived there for years,

been all this time in Midian where

took me a wife, laid low

from the long reach of Pharaoh.

Now word has come

from none other than the Big I Am,

an election’s underway

and the Israelites will all pray

the self same thing; they aren’t fussed

whether there’s just one box

to put their cross beside,

or as many as the names He goes by.

Lord knows they’re owed a break,

a deal’s a deal, so to speak,

so He scares away my in-law’s goats

by torching a clump of mountain gorse,

and turns my staff into a sand viper,

and poxes my eating hand,

then He empties out his sack

on the cracked and thirsty sand.

I’m standing waist deep in polling chits

rendered to the Lord by Israelites,

each one signed with a cross

but no candidate’s name in any box.

(c) 2012 Slush Poet