DIEGO DELEO
An 80 year-old
compagno poet,
same age as me
but victimof that
horrific Ellis Act
is Diego Deleo.
30 years in the Beach
and now that his wife
is gone there comes
the eviction notice,
the fuel of greed
for those who see
the future only as a
road made of dough,
to which bread we
say no and again no,
and stand up for the
dignity of Diego Deleo.
Let’s make an island
of the Ellis Act,
like Ellis Island
and isolate it in fact
like a thing of the past,
a museum of a time
that’s long since gone,
and sign off onthat
rotten eviction law
that’s illegal in its heart-
less core, and let Diego
live out his human fire.
— Jack Hirschman
