eenie meenie minie moe             catch a voter by her toe             if she hollers then you know            got yourself a real jane crow                           ~~~one vote is an opinionwith a quiet legal force ::a barely audible beepin the local traffic, & justa plashless drop of mercuryin the national thermometer.but a collectivity of votes/ a flock of votes, a pride of votes,a murder of votes / can reallymake some noise.                           ~~~                              one vote begets another                               if you make a habit of it.                   my mother started taking me                       to the polls with her when i                         was seven :: small, thrilled                             to step in the booth, pull                        the drab curtain hush-shut                        behind us, & flip the levers                 beside each name she pointed                       to, the Xs clicking into view.                           there, she called the shots.                             ~~~                 rich gal, poor gal                 hired girl, thief                teacher, journalist                  vote your grief                            ~~~ one vote's as good as another :: still, in 1913, illinois's gentlesuffragists, hearing southernwomen would resent spottingmrs. ida b. wells-barnett amidstwhite marchers, gently kickedtheir sister to the curb. but whenthe march kicked off, ida gotright into formation, as planned.the tribune's photo showedher present & accounted for.                           ~~~                     one vote can be hard to keep                          an eye on :: but several / a                       colony of votes / can't scuttle                   away unnoticed so easily. my                   mother, veteran registrar for                      our majority black election                      district, once found—after                    much searching—two bags                     of ballots / a litter of votes /                    stuffed in a janitorial closet.                           ~~~                   one-mississippi                  two-mississippis                           ~~~one vote was all fannie louhamer wanted. in 1962, whenher constitutional right wasover forty years old, she triedto register. all she got for hertrouble was literacy tested, polltaxed, fired, evicted, & shotat. a year of grassroots activismnearly planted her mississippifreedom democratic partyin the national convention.                           ~~~                           one vote per eligible voter                   was all stacey abrams needed.                        she nearly won the georgia              governor's race in 2018 :: lost by            50,000 / an unkindness of votes /                to the man whose job was purg                        maintaining the voter rolls.                 days later, she rolled out plans                      for getting voters a fair fight.              it's been two years—& counting.