Danilo López

Panic
Up there a sign on a rusted valise reads:
She is gone, it is over down here
Mai kaikan ai daukisa!
A boy tries to clean the yellow paint from between his
Fingernails, inside the cook cries, secretary to other realities
Umpira ai kaiks!
Old TV receptors adorn the wall separating us
Strange plantains grow on almond trees
Strangers from other dreams play familiar rhythms
They begin with tree strings and fused metals
They end with broken backs
Upla kumi sin balras!

His-Panic
Down, down and up the hill,
we have three lanes where two only
should exist,
báaxten na’?
Texaco, Marlboro, Wendy's and
Ray-O-Vac signs waving good bye
to the traveler
báaxten na’?
the neighbor to the North has sold us
everything, except anti-pollution
devices, handicap codes and health
insurance
báaxten na’?
Goodyear, American Airlines and
Visa card,
let's send cocaine in exchange,
and immigrants, and sugar, and labor
lu’um nohoch kool
prices are low, prices are cheap,
they have sold us everything, including
Madonna, Michael Jackson, and The New KOB
lu’um nohoch kool

Everything
Yaab winik
let's send them good leather, some arts
and crafts, and tax evasion and interest debts,
even some children to adopt or to take
body organs from
Yaab winik
they have sold us everything,
except wealth
kim sah!

Hispano
Trato en vano de separarme
Vuelo sobre tierras de cuchillos
Y uñas amenazantes
Vuelo sobre flores raras que
Devienen pájaros
Canto canciones del barrio
Invoco el regreso de mis padres
Wáguchi Bùngiu le sièlubei inébewalá bíri
Nübinlá bidáani lun barúeijan ya uboúagu
ĺtaralá