Chinatown

After Polanski

When they ask what happened
to the boy you knew
tell them
this is Chinatown

And when they condemn the intrigue
and suspicion
the knife in my neighbour’s back
tell them
this is Chinatown

And tell them to watch out.

Pavlos Andronikos

Published in Antipodes 22 (Dec. 1987), 13,
alongside this illustration by Nikos Kypraios.