Selected Poems
Garbage Can Sonata
My alarm clock was a sanitation truck
as it rumbled one way down our block.
Not a commercial green dumpster tipper
but a cloned copy white snail rear loader
that did double duty in winter as a snow plow
Hydraulic hissing air
squeaking and a short vroom,
the lurch of the engine
squeal of the brakes
and the rhythm of the grinding compacter.
Scoop and shovel, crushing
high pitched whine, cursing sound and release
as the truck rolled up to the next house.
the sound of steel garbage cans scraped on
side walk cement and dragged into the street
banged empty on the lip of the loading bin.
Toss slid cans with a hollow bang back on the curb
reaching a crescendo. Leaving just outside our home
and fade to black up the block, around the corner.
as it rumbled one way down our block.
Not a commercial green dumpster tipper
but a cloned copy white snail rear loader
that did double duty in winter as a snow plow
Hydraulic hissing air
squeaking and a short vroom,
the lurch of the engine
squeal of the brakes
and the rhythm of the grinding compacter.
Scoop and shovel, crushing
high pitched whine, cursing sound and release
as the truck rolled up to the next house.
the sound of steel garbage cans scraped on
side walk cement and dragged into the street
banged empty on the lip of the loading bin.
Toss slid cans with a hollow bang back on the curb
reaching a crescendo. Leaving just outside our home
and fade to black up the block, around the corner.
