Portside

Haecceity

By Joshua Clover

If what you want is calm

to be restored you are still the enemy

you have not thought thru clearly

what that means

if what you want is a national

moment of silence the indictment

of a single police officer

or two or three you are still

the enemy you have chosen the reverie

of law for you and your friends if you want

another review panel a Justice Dept

study a return to democracy rather than

for riot and looting to leap beyond

itself from county to county

rift to rift until it becomes general

you have not understood

what a revolution is it’s just this

it’s coming out again night after night more of us

than there are of them it’s saying no

to every deal remember nothing

belongs to you because

nothing belongs to anyone

Joshua Clover is author of three poetry books, most recently Red Epic (Commune Editions 2015), and three of cultural history, most recemtly Riot Strike Riot: The New Era of Uprisings (Verso 2016); he’s been translated into ten languages. A Village Voice, Spin, FilmQuarterly, and The Nation columnist, he is a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at UC Davis. https://www.versobooks.com/books/2084-riot-strike-riot