LatinosUSA

My neighbor found a razor on his walk still

sharp enough to shave a sideburn.

He used it to carve a talisman

from a bar of soap

and peel a strip of paper from the kitchen wall

where he found the cartoon drawings

and preadolescent scrawl

his kids put there when he first moved in.

He peeled Formica from the countertop

and found a rough papery surface with smooth

wood beneath it and a message in pencil

claiming the house

held a history of social injustice

–a history he thought they stopped teaching

in school. Things like

red lining, restrictive clauses and drinking

fountains but all he could see were

cartoon cats and jingle bells Batman smells.

He asked the kids for help

scraping the rest of the wall and they

said it made more sense to just tear it down.