The ball in the can sounded like silver music. We chose silver
to contrast the red brick of our tenement building—the one
with no hot water, but lots of mice. We shook then sprayed
SLUM LORD on the black front door with a broken lock,
on the cracked pavement littered with empty crack vials.
It didn’t do much. The landlord never even scrubbed it away,
but it made us proud in that Lower East Side rebel way.
This was the summer of “Gentrification is Class War” riots
in Tompkins Square Park. Though I was part of the problem
(I’d moved to NYC for college, moved into the cheapest place
I could find) I protested with the homeless living in tents, made
them jelly sandwiches. I wanted to be part of the solution too.
Mayor Koch claimed there was human feces in the sandbox,
but as you can see in these photos, I was not afraid as I pumped
my fist. I pumped my legs on the swing and slid down the slide—
red
NO HOUSING NO PEACE graffitied down its silver side.
Denise Duhamel’s most recent books of poetry are Pink Lady (Pitt Poetry Series, 2025), Second Story (2021) and Scald (2017). Blowout (2013) was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is a distinguished university professor in the MFA program at Florida International University in Miami.
12 poets 