an itemized list: the events of the week of november 5, 2018
1. november 5th. i harass my friend from georgia with statistics about stacey abrams until she finally promises me she’ll vote dem if only i’ll shut up. i am satisfied.
2. november 6th. i vote and pray and take my prayers to the polls and think about waves, deep and blue and cleansing.
3. november 7th. i wake up to the news that a queer, native american woman by the name of sharice davids has been elected to congress and for the first time in two years i feel something like hope flutter in my chest. i have forgotten what proud feels like. in the evening i make my friends go to out to a bar to celebrate. the countertops are sticky and i order a gin and tonic and it’s trivia night and a man’s voice crackles across the bar with questions about vanna white and a 2003 ford. we’re in the middle of los angeles and i think maybe things can change.
4. november 8th. my alarm goes off just before a news alert blares and when i turn on the television i find out that last night while i was at a bar in the middle of los angeles, forty miles away at a different bar just outside of los angeles a man shot twelve people. three of them are college students like me and one of them is exactly my age. i wonder if any of them had ordered a gin and tonic.
5. november. december. june. february. october. i am not proud. i’m not sure where hope is anymore.
