My found poem was created based off of one of the conflicts in the short story “Lather and Nothing Else” by Hernando Téllez, using Canva, Procreate, and Microsoft Word. My poem shows the self versus self internal conflict of the protagonist, where he, a revolutionary, struggles to choose between “cowardly” killing the leader of the opposing political side when he came for a shave, or letting him go alive and only doing his job as a barber.

In paragraph 29, where the protagonist mentions “It was going to be very difficult to explain how I had had him at my mercy and then let him go, alive and shaved,” shows that he has a certain degree of responsibility as a revolutionary. However, the internal debate is further illustrated when he reflects on whether it was his job as a barber to kill him, or if he wants to be “The man who murdered Captain Torres… a coward”. Throughout the story, the protagonist continuously ponders the two options, until at the climax where he decides that “You’re an executioner and I’m only a barber,” letting the antagonist out alive.

In paragraph 30, the protagonist thinks to himself: “And to think how easy it would be to kill him. And he deserves it,” shows that he is trying to justify killing the man. However, in paragraph 33, the protagonist also justifies letting the antagonist go, because “no one was worth the sacrifice to becoming a murderer”.

My poem employs these mind games and the back and forth bickering in the protagonist’s mind with the use of repetition: the constant mentioning of “I was a revolutionary” but also “I was a barber, proud” and “not murderer”. This shows how the two conflicting identities both resonated deeply with the protagonist, and how coming to a final decision was tough, hence the internal conflict. My poem also includes the protagonist’s imagination, how he’d have to “flee, take refuge” if he commits the murder, showing how the dilemma was constantly on his mind.

Another conflict present is an external human versus human conflict. Paragraph 14 describes Torres as “a man with a good imagination; after all, it hadn’t occurred to anyone before him to string up the rebels and use various parts of their bodies for target practice.” This shows how Torres was a dangerous man who was cruel in an unimaginable way, and that he may present danger if he senses anything wrong with the protagonist or that he was a revolutionary, hence why the protagonist has to be “feigning casual unconcern” (paragraph 17).

My poem expresses this danger with the vivid description of the protagonist’s body language: the use of words such as “shakes”, “disoriented”, and “to my alarm” the moment the antagonist enters the shop— indicating an ”enemy on home turf”. Furthermore, these keywords help set the atmosphere from the beginning for readers who may have not read the full story. The additional mention of the protagonist’s bandolier and gun presents even more reason for the protagonist to be anxious.

For the art I drew, I decided for it to be the scene when the protagonist imagines his life after he murders Torres. The blood river matches “the scarlet stream”, and the absence of a light source (such as the sun) shows the darkness his world will plunge into if he kills Torres. The sophisticated font of “a scarlet stream, I’d flee, take refuge” represents the complexity of the choice the protagonist will have to make, and that it isn’t as simple as it may seem. The other picture is of the protagonist giving Torres a shave. It is black and white except the barber chair and the razor, the two things that will determine the protagonist’s destiny. Both pieces I have used Procreate, and some parts of the art I have traced from online pictures.

The title of the poem is “With The Push of a Razor” because by adding just a little force, the protagonist can greatly change the course of his life, highlighting the conflict and that the protagonist must thoroughly think through and pick a side. The background of the poem is a vintage newspaper background, to fit the “found poem” aesthetic, while it is also split in a curved half of blue and red, representing the good and the bad—letting Torres alive or killing him, respectively. Some words such as “murderer”, “barber”, and “scarlet stream” are enlarged to better convey the conflicting ideas to the reader.