Author’s note: “Fifteen Answers of the King to His Questioners” is a translation of an anonymous Serbia folk poem, interspersed with language from President Obama’s public speeches on surveillance.
Yes I tasted my wife taste the go-devil
they lowered from heaven & I saw
the white handkerchief they hung down
from heaven to earth & I surveillance’d
three barrels: one liquor one oil, one milk
& heard the first whisper I boil to black
& heard the black whisper I boil to milk
& heard the last whisper the milk boils all
by itself yes I watched the old warlander
she was lording me over her colt & a black
grouse was present he was tearing out
grass by the roots & weaving this grass
in his fetlocks this young horse was neighing
Yes I tasted my wife taste the liquored
lie down on her shit heap taste the curs
come to sniff at the womb in stockades
in the courtyards I tasted the catholics
they begged to kneel down for a century
& I saw the horse they prophesied I’d leave
my wife for: she had four heads & each one
was grazing on clover but only one leg
to sustain her yes I tasted my wife taste
a worry rock no a warchest of pearls no
a merit badge & I saw the pigtail of smoke
that shook them from earth to heaven
& I saw the chow line & the rich in the chow line
& deserters were handing out paychecks
demerits, bonuses false teeth or flour
Tell me where is my bonus said the desert
& the sacks were picked clean yes I tasted
my wife taste these stones with beards
like the devil’s they rolled down from heaven
& goose-stepped when they tasted the earth
& three women I loved from my youth I saw
weaving daisychains & smearing each other’s
wrists, each other’s chests with raw honey
& crowning themselves with their chains
& pressing to steady their prayer their wrists
to the earth & I saw many henchmen
with horseshoes for eyes with god’s veins
in their barrels with shoes filled with salt
& this is the devil’s workforce I said & I put them to work