Lion Island by Margarita Engle

Author:Margarita Engle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers

My Shadowy Life

Antonio

This theater contains so many

dark corners.

I feel like I’m haunting

the audience.

But all I want is time spent

listening.

School.

Work.

Hope.

All seem to fade as I waste my wishes

on Fan, whose voice sounds

like sunlight.

My Runaway Mind

Antonio

When my father visits,

he scolds me for letting my studies

grow vague and listless.

He scolds me for keeping Señor Lam

waiting, while I sneak into the theater

to gaze, and daydream.

He tells me to think of some way

to wake up from the haze of wishing.

So I do.

But not until after he reminds me

about the most exciting aspect

of his free cuadrillas.

Runaways.

Fugitives.

Eight-year indentured servants

whose tricky contracts

have proved unjust.

My father hides so many men in plain sight,

just by letting them work with the freed men,

pretending that they possess legal papers.

I don’t ask about false documents,

bribed foremen, lies told to sugar planters

or corrupt officials.

All I ask is whether my father thinks the inside

of a hollow stage

would work as a hiding place.

Or would costume closets

be better?

Or the puppet workshop,

where a californio named Choy Men

carves sculptural

masterpieces?

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