In the Lower Banlieue

Urban pioneers came 
to fix all the broken 
moldy things.
Young strong hands 
that knew better 
than homeowners who 
had lived 
in their houses 
for decades, 
latest in a line 
of ghosts 
stretching back 
to the original 
Creoles.
The pioneers scraped 
floors and walls 
down to bare cypress 
bones, naked oak
and magnolia bore witness 
to their fervor,
transforming old 
neighborhoods 
into bastions of 
the enlightened,
furnishing all the shiny-bright 
newly painted ladies 
with richer, hipper lovers.

With thanks to artist John Phandal Law and Paul Brookes of The Wombwell Rainbow for this prompt.