In Which Case You’d Lack the Power to Shed It

Power isn’t powerful
In the way it seems to be.

Consider the State’s power
To seize control of aspects

Of the most ordinary life,
To brutally constrain acts

Too small to concern power
as an actor on the stage—

Already it’s confusing
To wander around these parts—

Power, by definition,
Can destroy the powerless,

But how do those words help us?
How can knowing anything

Help us in our helplessness?
What are you talking about

When you refer to power—
Power wants this, seizes that,

Corrupts the other? Power?
There are people, stacked inside

The halls of power. (Power
Palaces only have halls—

No one ever references
Their bathrooms or libraries

Or kitchens or cupolas
Of power. Halls of power,

That’s it.) Those people have it
For whatever stretch of time

They’re carrying what’s granted
To them by powers that be.

And what are powers that be?
Who are they? Those who have it,

A share of it, thanks to those
Who had a share before them.

Power’s not an entity.
It’s neither god nor angel,

No one individual.
It’s something coursing through you

That you’d be wise to shed, if
You were wise, not powerful.