the bum feeder

by Rob Plath

my friend has a lot of wild parties

he has an enormous recycling bin
that is never empty

near the end of the night he has helpers
scrape it down the long driveway
to the curbside

the bin is getting quite popular
usually three bums descend upon it
sifting along through wine bottles for
refundable beer cans
plucking what they can & pedaling away

sometimes they fight like blue jays
& black birds
over seed at a plastic feeder
their dirty fingers poking at one another
in the pre-dawn light
grizzled toothless squawking about seniority

the bin is usually almost empty when
the hydraulics of maggio disposal company
pollute the morning silence
just wine bottles clattering into the mouth

of the truck