Picking up the trash

A homeless man dies. The juxtaposition of two events is meant to jar our perception.

Picking up the trash


Mist rises,
curls over the edge of blue
dumpsters. Moist tampons and rotting grapes
warm to sun. The air
remains still
and cold.

It's been two
days since Jason
died, sprawled out across a thin blue
mat, ill, in pain and homeless. Come
the third day, he
will not rise
again.

Mist melts.
The city wakes
to the sound of blue
trucks. They have come
to remove
the trash.


Kåre Enga

catalogue number: [162.496]
1 november 2005

Note: based on a real event. Jason Stark died early on Sunday morning, October 30, 2005. He appeared back in town a week before, looking ill and on several medications. I knew him; went to the inurnment; spoke to his mom.

http://www2.ljworld.com/obits/2005/nov/02/jason_stark/

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2005/nov/02/troubled_man_remembered_fighting_spirit...