Jornado Mogollon Serenade

Vincent Hostak

February 1, 2026

Hueco Mountains, El Paso County, TX

The Jornado Mogollon (moh-gə-YOHN) people inhabited the Chihuahuan Desert region, especially among weak granite hills and mountains. In the mid-1400s, fleeing devastating droughts, they left their villages and pictographs behind. The pockmarked hills are filled with shallow depressions known as the Hueco Tanks, which hold rare pools of rainwater. 

When swallows hung mud nests from cave mouths like

garlands of gourds,

When sparrows chased down-valley dust devils to

bathe in dirt,

When blue quail shook from top-knot to talon,

grazing for seeds,

All the Chihuahuan Desert could provide

was yours and theirs.

When rainwater filled the wind-chiseled wells,

you washed your face.

When prickly pear wore a blaze of pink flames,

you ate their flesh.

When birds bartered songs for the fruit that you

left for them,

You in your round-cornered homes slept among

silver-tipped saltbush.

Then came droughts, Spaniards, then railroads. Birds fled

to sierras.

Then you, too, moved south to piñon-shaded pueblos:

Casas Grandes.

Then, a horizon of roads, checkpoints, and detention

facilities.

Behind you, only small etched birds for

ravens to admire.

Vincent Hostak is a writer and media producer from Texas now living with his family and faithful canine, Lola, near the Front Range of Colorado. His recently published poems are found in the journals The Dewdrop (Vanessa Able, Editor-In-Chief), Sonder Midwest, The Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas, and the Texas Poetry Assignment.  His contributions also appear in the anthologies The 30th Annual Poetry Ink Anthology (Moonstone Arts, Philadelphia, 2025), Lone Star Poetry, and The Senior Class-100 Poets on Aging (Lamar University Press, Laurence Musgrove, Editor). His podcast on classic and contemporary poetry, and the novel ways it reaches audiences, relaunches in 2026.