Blossom

It is pleasantly warm today

The sun is shining and there is blossom out

This is Australia so there is always blossom out somewhere

It is Election Day and the voting station beckons me

Here if you are registered to vote it is compulsory to do so

So I join the queue and bask in the sunshine

The entrance is some way off and we must run the gauntlet

Of the political parties helpers who want to give us pamphlets

These are to tell us how to vote

I refuse to accept them, they look hurt

And seem to say "Why don’t you want something for free?"

The girl in front of me is clasping a bundle of them all

I expect it is the first time she has voted

She is quite short with dark brown hair

As I am tall I inspect her scalp and then the rest of her

We edge closer to the entrance door

She really is quite beautiful

All young people are to the old

She has a little too much mascara on but her eyes laugh

She has flat shoes and I can imagine her toes wriggling as she waits

And she does have a pretty nose

She clutches all the how to vote leaflets

The one for the Greens is on top

I decide she will vote for them

We reach the door and she speaks

“If I vote for the Greens…” she starts

“Where will my vote go?”

I point to the how to on her leaflets.

“In the lower house you must vote for each candidate in order of preference from 1 to 7” I say breathing in the freshness of her young body.

“But in the Senate you may vote 1 against the candidate of your choice above the line and the party will direct the preference where your vote goes if they don’t get in. Other wise you must vote for every candidate below the line in order of preference. I think there are over seventy of them!"

She smiles and nods enthusiastically. “I like…” and here she mentions the female candidate’s name on the flyer.

“Yes she’s lovely isn’t she?”

I want to say but not as beautiful as you.

But I don’t, but merely chat about other things as we shuffle slowly into the hall and wait to be directed to the counters to be checked off the roll and receive our voting slips.

I really love the spring especially when you can breathe in the scent of the fresh flowering blossom up close.