“My Uncle’s Killer,” by J. Estanislao Lopez (Poetry ’19)

“My Uncle’s Killer,” a poem by alumnus J. Estanislao Lopez, was recently featured by the Poetry Foundation. Read an excerpt below:

My Uncle’s Killer

wipes spots of toothpaste from the bathroom mirror
he shares nightly with his son. There, he’s humanized

again in my imagination, which keeps endowing him
with other forms: a lion with a bullet in its teeth;

a scythe-shaped smile on a child’s back. Can I tell you
that, sometimes, I utter the word justice and mean revenge?

Find the rest of this poem here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/152507/my-uncles-killer