The Alamo

 
Summers we throw

rocks at the impending

depredation of the Amtrak

on the Colorado landscape.

Our whole neighborhood

of shirtless brown boys

throw, with all of our might,

at the Plexiglas windows,

to watch the rocks explode

in the faces of the white travelers,

as the brown residue frames

their condescending faces.

We imagine a tour-guide

saying, To the right

are some of the natives

in a British accent, so we

keep throwing our limestone

rocks and as the last car

is hit with our primitive weapons,

Isaac says Remember the

Alamo, at which we all laugh

for no reason.
 
 
 

J.J. Hernandez studies poetry as a third-year graduate student in the Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing at Fresno State. He was named the program’s 2016 C. G. Hanzlicek Poetry Writing Fellow, and in 2015 he received the Andrés Montoya Memorial Scholarship. J.J. serves as Senior Associate Poetry Editor for The Normal School literary magazine, as well as the Poetry Editor for Razorhouse, an online magazine.