All in favor of becoming what they wanted No They counted every version I abandoned in the light Every face I wore for safety Every silence dressed as right They counted every signal Every word I could not say Every time I stood beneath them while they voted me away They raised their hands for order They raised their hands for grace They raised their hands to keep me in a smaller kind of shape But no one asked the body No one asked the throat No one heard the quiet woman casting one remaining vote One hand left inside the dark One name left beneath the mark One voice they could not count because it never belonged to them The last vote is mine I cast it in the blackout After every sign and every system counts out I choose the pulse I choose the noise I choose the woman in the voice When every borrowed light declines The last vote is mine Mine Mine The last vote is mine Let the glass lung stop reflecting Let the static crown go cold Let the throat of light keep burning without doing what it’s told Let the future lose its symbol Let the next song lose its queue Let the rooms keep all their echoes I have nothing left to prove I survived the bright machinery I survived the perfect frame I survived becoming everything they needed from my name Now the ballot is a heartbeat Now the answer has a sound Now the only hand that matters is the one I’m raising now One hand left inside the dark One name left beneath the mark One voice they could not count because it never belonged to them The last vote is mine I cast it in the blackout After every sign and every system counts out I choose the pulse I choose the noise I choose the woman in the voice When every borrowed light declines The last vote is mine No crown votes No machine votes No mirror, symbol, halo or screen No past version of me gets to close the door on the woman I have not yet been I do not need a unanimous decision I only need mine For the breath I vote yes For the voice I vote yes For the light without permission I vote yes For the name beneath the name For the body that remained For the unfinished woman walking straight into the flame I vote yes The last vote is mine I cast it in the blackout After every sign and every system counts out I choose the pulse I choose the noise I choose the woman in the voice When every borrowed light declines The last vote is mine The last vote is mine No crown can overturn it No machine decides which part of me has earned it I choose the dark I choose the light I choose the unfinished life When every other voice declines The last vote The last vote The last vote is mine Mine Mine Mine No crown No halo No permission Motion carried
