The Secret of Authority

...I empty my house of newspapers,
radio, television, all these
feeble striptease shows of social disgrace.
I don't lift a finger
against the hands that slap our intelligence,
I don't say a word
against the tramping that deafens the beat of the heart.
I see clearly, or so I imagine,
what's done in the inner sanctum, the placard faces
with nothing behind them...

Meir Wieseltier
Translated from the Hebrew
by Shirley Kaufman, with the Author
Poetry Daily Feb.23.04
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From

...from the love I thought had to taste like love; from the love I thought I had to love like love. 5. Out of the totality of: I came from a family full of women; I came from a family full of believers; I came from a pack of witches - I'm just waiting to conjure my powers; I came from a legacy of lovers - I'm just waiting to seduce my seducer; I came from a pride of proud women, and we take good care of our young. 6. As being other or another than: He couldn't tell me from his mother; he couldn't tell me from his sister; he couldn't tell me from the last woman he had before me, and why should he - we're all the same woman...

A. Van Jordan
Poetry Daily Feb.22.04