Trash

When you're old and you've already toted out at least 14,000 bags of trash in your lifetime, you get the feeling that the job will never be done but that you've done your share. Every time you empty a waste-paper basket or the kitchen garbage can, it's deja vu all over again, as some sage remarked.

Deja Vu All Over Again

In 80 years, I estimate
14,000 bags of trash
I've gathered up and carried out
of this or that establishment.

In retrospect, I'd like to state,
if I were paid one dollar cash
for every bag, I have no doubt
that such reward or settlement

would ease the sad predicament
my finances have reached of late.
But history tells me: toting trash
may be what life is all about.

By JRC 06/01/2013