A POEM - HE WAS OFF TO A BAD START

HE WAS OFF TO A BAD START
He must have woken up in the morning
By hearing the garbage truck outside.
The men were grunting and
Throwing the trash bags into the truck.
I heard him jump out of bed.
He’d forgotten to
Put out his trash the night before,
So he tumbled down the stairs and
didn’t bother with shoes
and when he finally made it
Outside the garbage truck was rolling
Down the street.
He tried to wave it down
but as he moved across
The small front lawn
He stepped in a pile of dog shit
Left there by our neighbor’s Jack
Russell Terrier.
He watched the garbage truck drive away
and he held h
is hands up and wrung them at the sky
and shouted, “goddamn mother-
Fucking dogs! Clean up yer fucking shit.”
I was inside my living room drinking a beer.
After witnessing the whole
spectacle I let out a chuckle and
Took another swig from my bottle,
It was just another reminder to me
why it was better to stay inside,
stay inside where I was safe and alone,
better not to risk going out there
to face the world.