Poems and Texts

“POWER” by John Keene

POWER

When you said bread did you mean blood?
When you said desire did you mean desert?
When you said people did you mean punish?
When you said thought did you mean terror?
When you said read did you mean riot?
When you said friend did you mean fraud?
When you said connection did you mean kin?
When you said love did you mean leave?
When you said law did you mean lie?
When you said army did you mean Armageddon?
When you said health did you mean hell?
When you said together did you mean token?
When you said we did you mean war?
When you said fat did you mean fate?
When said soil did you mean oil?
When you said earth did you mean own?
When you said destiny did you mean decimate?
When you said honor did you mean hunger?
When you said mother did you mean murder?
When you said father did you mean fatal?
When you said couple did you mean capital?
When you said poetry did you mean passive?
When you said hope did you mean hype?
When you said freedom did you mean forget?
When you said last did you mean lost?
When you said fame did you mean game?
When you said name did you mean nobody?
When you said tomorrow did you mean never?
When you said meekness did you mean mockery?
When you said faith did you mean fanatic?
When you said politics did you mean power?
When you said wealth did you mean wall?
When you said poor did you mean prison?
When you said foist did you mean fast?
When you said fellow did you mean follow?
When you said feeling did you mean fallow?
When you said brother did you mean brutal?
When you said sister did you mean suffer?
When you said man did you mean master?
When you said woman did you mean wither?
When you said white did you mean welcome?
When you said black did you mean back?
When you said yellow did you mean yield?
When you said brown did you mean ground?
When you said I did you mean island?
When you said ideal did you mean idol?
When you said God did you mean greed?
When you said they did you mean threat?
When you said us did you mean use?
When you said succeed did you mean sucker?
When you said joy did you mean joke?
When you said end did you mean endure?
When you say art do you mean act?

Copyright © John Keene, 2016.

John Keene

John Keene‘s recent books include the story collection Counternarratives (New Directions, 2015), and several books of poetry. He also has translated the Brazilian author Hilda Hilst’s novel Letters from a Seducer (Nightboat Books, 2014). His recent honors include an American Book Award and Windham-Campbell Prize for Fiction, as well as a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He chairs the department of African American and African Studies, and teaches English and creative writing at Rutgers University-Newark.

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