PrettyFakes

In 1992 I wanted so badly to vote for William Jefferson Clinton but my eighteenth birthday was still four months away. Alabama won the National Championship and I hurdled the Alabama border at sunset in a midnight blue 1969 Chevrolet Camaro, taking Mississippi as my home.

Gloria in excelsis deo,
et in terra pax hominibus bonae voluntatis

It is Election Night 2000 and I am vomiting in the bathroom of Hal & Mal’s, and through a haze of whiskey and saltwater I look up and read When I first heard Elvis’ voice, I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody, and nobody was going to be my boss, and I heave again, and then I wipe my face and splash some water in my eyes and go back out to smile and thank people for coming and

Laudamus te.
Benedicimus te.
Adoramus te.
Glorificamus te.

It is 1996 and I am walking in Starkville with a backpack full of fliers that say “RE-ELECT THE PRESIDENT” and kuk-chonk them to telephone poles up and down University, just like I did the weeks and years before for bands, and I’m pissed at my President, because I’m young and I’m mad and he caved on gays in the military, health care fell apart, and I don’t really quite get yet that he’s got an all-rabid Republican Congress because I’m so young and I’m real pissed, and he wins and I don’t even get drunk because I’m such a bastard.

Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam.
Domine Deus, Rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.
Domine fili unigenite, Jesu Christe.
Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius patris.

It is Tuesday night, November 7, 2006, around 8:30 and it’s beautiful outside with a full moon and the air is clean and clear and Jaysus his waiting on his porch with a Miller Lite for me and he says “it’s looking good, but it’s so, so close” and, out of nowhere, I burst into tears.

I shotgun the beer and flip open my phone and text friends on campaigns out West: Mississippi loves Minnesota .Mississippi loves Montana. Which is the truth.

Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Qui tollis peccata mundi suscipe deprecationem nostram.
Qui sedes ad dexteram patris miserere nobis.

It is 1984, and a seven-year old Boy Fury is slowly turning the pages of What If? #44, “What If Captain America Were Revived Today,” and the real Cap tells a group of duped Americans that It’s still possible for you to bring freedom back to America, and something begins to glow inside him, like an ember, and

Quoniam tu solus sanctus.

It is noon today and I’m blowing on my egg drop soup because it’s too hot and my friend is listening to a voicemail from her boyfriend that says We got Montana! We got Montana! I love you! and she begins to laugh and then puts it on speakerphone and we listen to it again and

Tu solus Dominus.

It is yesterday again but really so early and I’m passing out as my phone buzzes and Jaxxie has typed Mccaskell wins MO! Talent conceeded and

Tu solus Altissimus, Jesu Christe.

It is the fall of 1993 and I have never voted before and I drive back from Starkville and go to my parents’ house and then I walk with my mother up the road, through the little trail in the woods, past the Methodist church and to the firestation, and I meet the pollwatchers, who know her by name, and there is my name, right next to those of my parents, and I vote and walk back through the woods with my mother, as the first leaves of fall begin to tumble and swirl about us.

Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 8th, 2006 at 3:46 pm and is filed under Comixx, Gorjus, In Mississippi, In the Nation, In the South. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.