How you vote today will change your future.
And the future of your neighbours, your boss, your landlord, your niece, your child, your family, your friends, your cousin once removed and complete strangers.
There is certainly much to consider. Everyone has different priorities - is affected more by different things - but it seems to me all anyone really wants is to live.
Without fear of hate, of poverty, of discrimination, of violence
without fear of not being able to get a GP appointment
or life saving treatment,
or an ambulance.
Without the fear of being told you shouldn’t be here,
you don’t deserve to be here,
you are a danger.
Of not being believed
when a disability stops you from working
as if a person only has value for their ability to contribute
rather than their merits as a person
and the fact they are a person at all.
How you vote today will change the future.
That is the hope -
That something will change for the better,
that promises made by policy makers
will be honoured,
that some kind of relief will be offered,
that there will be a future that we can change.
It’s difficult to believe that change is possible when we are already so tired, and so conditioned to a lack of compassion.
It is difficult to look further afield when home is closer.
There is such a thing as the right thing I think, though we may differ on what that is.
There is much to consider.
We can only follow our conscience, think of what and who is dear to us, what kind of a world we want to live in and see if one drop of water will make a difference.
Alex Callaghan is a poet from Leeds. You can find them on Instagram at @poetry_ditties or on Twitter as @ABCallaghan2
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