my old house in los andes.
i walked to the corner where the opuntia with the peace symbol carved into one of its pad used to stand. when i was a boy i didn’t know if it was a modified mercedes logo or a satanic mark made by the mariguaneros that loitered on the other side of the brick wall. i turned the corner and found my dad’s red pegaso truck burnt and destroyed. he was next to it. he seemed distraught. we walked to his taller where he began making a great roughly carved wooden eagle like the aquila that rests on the standard of roman legions. then he built a sign as large as the wingspan of a condor. he carved into it the english word “war” in rugged letters. woke up.