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