Monday, April 11, 2016

Steven Storrie- A Poem


THE GARBAGE TRUCK IS COMING

The garbage truck is coming
Down the street at 6am
Its lights illuminate the darkness
And its noise rattles and clangs
Telling people who’ve been sleeping
It might be
Time for work

The men leap from the side and back
Some weary
Some strong
They’ve been doing this for years
And it always stays the same
Sure
You might find the odd piece of jewellery
Or a strange gift from an even stranger soul
But make no mistake
This job is monotony incarnate
And doesn’t get easier as you go

You get used to the smell
They say
Stop noticing it after a week
Mostly you move at a snail’s pace
And get funny looks from women
In expensive clothes
It doesn’t matter that you’re a poet
It doesn’t matter you race bikes
In California on the weekends
And know where all the celebs like to go
It doesn’t matter your life
Is more exciting than theirs
And you know things they’ll never know
You’re a garbage man
You’ll always be a garbage man
Get used to it

I watch them drag the rubbish
From the drive to the truck
And back to the street
Their faces are blank
Most of them
Tired
And bored
And old
The young ones move with gusto
They haven’t learned yet
That garbage keeps on coming
No matter how fast you try and go

I hear them banter with each other
Across the street and down the road
My wife has got the kettle on
The kitchen bathed in half light
The T.V sound turned low

The orange light is getting closer
Making its way through the dawn
The driver eases forward
Rubs his eyes and starts to yawn

Eventually they reach me
My house at the end of the block

I feel a sadness fill my heart
‘Hi’
I say
The early morning cold
Blowing through my bones
‘I’m the new guy
Where is it I should start?’

BIO; Steven Storrie has worked as a cable T.V repair man, dishwasher, choreographer, ice cream vendor and junk yard attendant. Tired of this shit he is currently locked in his basement working on his first poetry collection, bickering with his neighbours and storing the baseballs he keeps when they are hit into his yard. You can find him at the website he runs, Black Coffee For Breakfast, here http://renegadepriest11.wix.com/blackcoffeebreakfast

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