Anaheim to Palestine (Poem)

{Palestinians rally on Brookhurst Street last October / photo by Gabriel San Roman}

How much longer

will our dreams of freedom

be ignored, beaten,

threatened with guns?

They deem us inhuman,

unworthy of rights,

and when we fight,

they bring out their

elements of terror:

how much longer

will we hear of midnight raids,

"Secure Communities",

racist check points,

bombings in the Gaza Strip,

the bulldozing of homes,

the murder of youth

on our city streets by the police...

and when we respond with anger,

with frustration more than weapons,

they respond with bullets to our rocks,

they respond with air strikes to rockets...

our dead are unworthy of humanity,

their dead are heroes...

tonight I will not dream of democracy,

I will dream of survival,

I will dream of rebellion,

I will dream of resistance!

Jesus Cortez is the unofficial poet laureate of Anaheim--especially West Anaheim!