Fatherhood in the bottle

————

a Tupperware bus

resides in the trash can, ‘long

with a recording

of a four-year-old

rapping about cicadas

on his Fisher-Price

tape recorder. Lights

flash on the talking garbage

truck begging, “Recycle”

and the Brio train

set is on top the load to

the dump where the trashman crushes

the piles of garbage

with the Plus Tips

of a 2010 CAT 826H compactor.

the yellow smear of

the school bus caught in the wire

mesh buries itself

in a mix of fish

guts, and chemicals without

safety data sheets (MSDSs)

The dump man who can’t

climb the ladder will drink the

Gallo wine down, break

the glass upon the pad, marking

his domain like the grizzly,

eating his own.

By Barbara A Meier

From: United States

Website: https://basicallybarbmeier.wordpress.com/