Poem From The Vandalized Blackboard Age of Western Civilization (Dumpster)

A night in the life
of a dumpster
behind a housing project
in Hartford:

a leg made out of titanium
and cocaine fingerprints
around empty cans
of baby formula

Jehovah on dozens
of pamphlets
soy-sauced together
with menus
from the neighborhood
Chinese take-out

Surgical dressings
almost like new
and several indigent
hospital bracelets

The petrified cud
of what used to be
burgers fries gizzards
& thighs

Several spoons  dozens
of matches & a syringe

And the rump of a rat
that soon disappears

for what is still breathing
down below

Kenneth DiMaggio