Los Angeles

Dina El Dessouky

 

 

I saw los angeles

flying one night

and from their angel-eyed view

Los Angeles sparkled

with every jeweled hue

in the full spectrum

of a Spanish conquistador’s

unholy collection:

 

emerald traffic lights mounted

 

                                                 over Chumash altars

ruby beach bonfires blown

 

                                      with Tongva sand

all set in

fine

plundered

 

                          indio gold;

 

 

 

black space

makes them shine brighter,

 

                                                          those City gems.

 

 

 

~~~~~

Born in Hamburg to parents from Cairo, Dina El Dessouky immigrated to the United States at age three. Dina teaches writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she completed her doctorate in Literature. A 2013 VONA/Voices Alum, her poems and prose appear in Mizna, Arabesques Review, Kurungabaa, and Min Fami: Arab Feminist Reflections on Identity, Space, and Resistance (Inanna Publications, 2014).