His parents had raised him to be politically progressive.
But over time, as their candidates lost again and again,
his parents enthusiasm for politics fell away altogether.
They became jaded, but he still held high the liberal banner.
As he aged, however, also beaten down by loss after loss,
he too gave up on politics, which disturbed his activist wife.
She’d been raised a liberal, and when the election cycle came,
she begged him to get active again by working for her candidate.
Finally, on election day, begrudgingly, he followed his wife to the corner
of Nu‘uanu and Pauoa Road, where everyone had lined up to sign-wave.
As the sun beat down on them, he grew faint and suddenly keeled over,
but a vision of his wife’s candidate giving a victory speech revived him.
“He’s going to win,” he shouted, grabbing his wife’s hand, and that night,
hearing the victory speech, he believed he’d received the gift of second sight.
Lanning Lee 