Who sets the rules
that garbage should be stacked
in alphabetical order?
The men from down town
smile and tell jokes as they uncover the cans,
checking off on their lists that everything
is in order, that every disposable
is in its appropriate position.. And someone in City Hall
smirks. He sits at his desk at the center of everything
and counts the receipts
from the fines of those found guilty of disorderly disposal,
contemplates the most arcane possibilities of punishment.
Thus the measure of each man’s position in society:
garbage as the common denominator.