no one told me there’s a life without rashes | do you know how many times | i’d pour mexico into mouth and feel the puncturing of apex | a dozen blisters on body | i’d devour valentina until roots dried in milk and salt | swallow sixty sabritones as lips mountained with saliva and salt | i’d wolf abuela’s nopales and howl this resuscitated river | this map tethering figure to ancestor’s grief | this tongue that heals only to burn again at the swaddle of its birthright
Geographic Tongue
Angelina Leaños
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Copyright © 2025 by Angelina Leaños.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Angelina Leaños is a Ventura County Youth Poet Laureate emerita and a third-year MFA student at Fresno State. Angelina regularly serves as a Poetry Out Loud coach and a Poet-Teacher, mentoring youth in poetry recitation and creative writing. Additionally, Angelina is a member of California Poets in the Schools’ Board of Directors and was a reader for the 2023 Philip Levine Prize. Her work has been published by Urban Word, Arkana, Fruitslice, Reed Magazine, and others.
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