photo/rmpbs.org


Henry’s Elegy For Gorgythion Mendoza

As a desert flower bursts into bloom
bending its petals towards
the cuneiform tablet sun,

weighed down by the dusting of sand
and the sudden hot winds
that roll over desert dunes,

Gorgythion Mendoza, Chicano soldier,
from the valley of Texas,
leans his head to one side

as he sits in the Hummer
and then his bloody helmet
falls on the floorboard.

Gorgythion’s eyes
still stare straight ahead
unaware that he’s dead.