René Gomez
Poetry
“Alba”
(1969)
A thousand Marias swarm our tiny village-world.
It’s not enough to be devoid of
place-on-map
telephone wires
paved roads
hot/warm water
faithful men
We must be devoid of an ounce of thought, to boot—
shall you let poverty suck your creative stirrings, too?
So go ahead: blah-blah-blah-worship
our Virgin Mary like all the million
blah-blah-blahs who worshipped her the
exact. same. way.
and who blah-blah-blahd their children
into existence with the same old intentions
and the same old inventions
to make them hope and want,
only to be thrust into the same old swirl of
Blah-Blah-Blah: the capricious stirrings of Gods,
a life marked by the same old rituals,
the same old woes-and-wins, the constant
wasteland of a time sprinkled stingily
with sporadic sublimes.
Yes, I have grown soured,
wondering if in my final hour my flimsy saint
will show to take me up or down or
wherever it is, I shall go…
For when your daughter’s grown,
and I’ve long passed through,
I leave her here this last haiku:
When the sky wakens,
smile up to sleepless Saint,
and remember Me.
Bio
René Gomez was raised in Oakland, CA. He studied Film and Media Studies at Columbia University. His work has appeared in Write Now! SF Bay Essential Truths: The Bay Area in Color and The Artifice.
Instagram/TikTok/YouTube: @rene.gzzz