An elegy for Gaza as symbol for the new year by Jesús B. Ochoa

dawns the year, cold,
fog swirls distances
away, today the same
as last night’s moon, dead
the stubborn morning glory
hanging frozen on the vine, witness
to the birth of Yeat’s slouching beast swollen
with the gore of murder resting by the wall
to stop the sun, strong to smother
message of another Birth now done
with irrelevant visitors from the east
who came and caused but smallest wonder
because we willed the killing to continue
and continue and continue, how could we not?
we must not, no, no, cannot, will not, consider not
the sacredness of life, the other, the weak, the children,
no, we revel in our treasure spun of stolen land,
of god created in our image, draping our souls
with hate and fear enough to warm our hubris,
all we stand tall, all, we are the chosen unto the planets,
we need no other, want no other, will have no other,
suffer no other, no, no, for we are, we are, WE ARE.

Jesús B. Ochoa

 First generation born in U.S. from immigrants on maternal side of Mexican Original Peoples Tepehuan Nation, paternal side Basque immigrants from Guernica, Spain, to Mexico, great great-grandmother from Rarámuri Original peoples from Mexico. University of Notre Dame ’56, University of Texas School of Law ’64, citizen of the Chicano Nation, retired lawyer, U.S. Navy veteran,7 children, 10 grandchildren, animal rights activist, human & civil rights for all, women, children, and members of the lgbtq community included.

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