josie g.,
whose name you could find on any wall in the mission
in front of, behind, beneath, or on top of my sister’s,
lisa a.
and always with a big fat
Con/Safos
told us of her daddy’s homeland:
24th and Mission is cool
san jo’s got it going on with Story and King
and there ain’t nothing wrong with East Los
but Española, New Mexico
that’s The Lowrider Capital of the WORLD!
The world?
The world!
Fer realz?
she maddogged us.
we raised our underage hands
with overage drinks
to those chicanos
who gave lowriding
a capital!
after my first and last party
with my sister and her homegirls
cops killed mission street cruising
no left turns 9 pm to 4 am
you got a broken tail light
expired registration
pull over
our dreams
if we had any
crashed into jail and drugs,
we got pregnant
we dropped out
—
Cathy Arellano writes about growing up brown, coming out queer, and living as true as she can which is kinda crooked. Her poetry and prose collection Salvation on 24th Street will be published in 2013. Her work has appeared in various journals and anthologies. Contact her at carellanopoet@yahoo.com.
200 New Mexico Poems 