justice had been done
and one Black Woman who said
“They convinced me” meaning
they had dragged her 4'10'' black Woman's frame
over the hot coals
of four centuries of white male approval
until she let go
the first real power she ever had
and lined her own womb with cement
to make a graveyard for our children.
I have not been able to touch the destruction
within me.
But unless I learn to use
the difference between poetry and rhetoric
my power too will run corrupt as poisonous mold
or lie limp and useless as an unconnected wire
and one day I will take my teenaged plug
and connect it to the nearest socket
raping an 85 year old white woman
According to Thomas Dilworth, by referencing “the difference between poetry and rhetoric” Lorde is bringing up the idea of ego-death as he claims that poetry is the “killing of passionate egoism,” while rhetoric is “utilitarian language that does not exist gratuitously for its beauty but chiefly as expression for a speaker or to affect a listener” (Rudnitsky p. 7). If Dilworth is correct in his claim, Lorde is saying that if she does not “learn to use the difference between poetry and rhetoric,” then her power will either “run corrupt as poisonous mold,” having solely a negative impact, or “lie limp and useless as an unconnected wire,” serving no purpose. This passage reveals Lorde’s value of her own power and creativity, and her opinion that poetry and expression, involving ego-death, serves a much greater and more collaborative purpose than sole rhetoric, which can either serve the author or the listener, but not both. Link:  
Power