Susan B turns in her grave

in the year of the angry, old white men
they vote because of people like her—
in Rochester Cemetery the queue wraps
twice around her grave
like the line to vote

one side of the road chants his name
the other outrage, they vote for racial
patriarchy— this campaign is not poetry

she is bleeding from her eyes, bleeding from her ‘wherever’ …
his vindictive natural register —

Susan B turns in her grave
she knows these angry old white men—
their fortress against the other,
their mandate for misogyny

( Susan B Anthony voted illegally in 1872. She was tried, fined but refused to pay any penalty. )