An Empty Tear Gas Canister Has Regrets.

• Author: Liu, Kenji C.
• Position: POEM - Poem

An Empty Tear Gas Canister Has Regrets So many streets burn tonight. I'm non-lethal, full of mercy. Infuse your shirt with cheap vinegar, drunk on my mercy. I could've held black olives or honeyed Georgia peaches. Instead I'm a mercenary, fumigating without mercy. O smothering night, let's feast. Paint your cheeks with darkest clouds--fulfill my dream of gothic mercy. I drag lungs from their tethers in Oakland, Ferguson, and Jerusalem. Isn't this actually just my master's corporate gramercy? I blister into you with a suitor's fawning. Siege of longing. Then I'm spent, purged of purpose. I'm trash in a world devoid of mercy. Loved your nose. Temples. Soft eyes. Bellies and retreating kidneys. But now I'm directionless, and no god to ask for mercy. Before city hall, a bouquet of...