Lantern Review: Issue 5

18
No gun

28
No knife

Chorus
No fucking reason for a bullet to a brain

18
Other than the color of his skin

28
the shape of his eyes

18
the fish sauce smell of his clothes

28
and the anger that comes
from living in a world
that marks you

18
Tags you like a pit bull

Chorus
Codes you as a dirty refugee son

Takeo Rivera

(28 and 38 begin strutting around as “the cops”; Kronos begins stumbling, silently shouting at the cops)

18
So Kronos was pissed that night
Pissed at the world
the white yuppies in Palo Alto whose groceries he bagged
pissed at the pigs who frisked and fucked our lives
So he shouts

Kronos
I hate fucking pigs!

(28 and 38 react, glaring at him)

28
He’s got enough rum in his gut
to flood his dam of common sense

18
So he says what’s on his fucking mind

Kronos
Get the fuck outta my neighborhood
and take your guns with you!

(28 and 38 raise their hands as guns, aiming at him)