under grandmother sainthood
watchful Christ tacked on the wall
la virgen de Guadalupe fifteen-years-old shaved her eyebrows over her mother’s sink.

the dregs of oversized dickies
and apple attar overrun pico boulevard
roberta flack cries for her angelitos negros
whose spoon rattle dances craze terrible crystals,
her furnace of mourning floods every orchard avenue.

once spanish paved roads merge on boy gang breeding grounds of dope,
teenage lip liner stain the votive candles.

Mya Reyes-Rios is a freshman at Columbia College intending to study English and Ethnicity & Race Studies. Her poetry is influenced by her upbringing in Los Angeles and it explores themes related to mass incarceration, addiction, and inequality. She posts more about these topics on her Twitter, @mielhija.