A Bum and his Shopping Cart, Giving Up his Ways

A bum leaves his shopping cart

in the middle of the intersection

at 7th Ave and Perry St

and walks away

leaving everything behind

 

Shopping cart gets hit

by an onslaught of

yellow taxis whizzing by

 

The contents flying out

into the humid afternoon —

two cans of lost

childhood

one box of forgotten

dreams,

three empty beer cans

from the early 60's,

a box of unused

typing paper

 

He is giving up his ways

Sworn off picking through

trashcans

for partly eaten pizza

slices

and the artichokes of the past

one hundred years

 

Tired of trying to reason with

the playful rats who are after

the same slice of pizza

 

And as one last gesture of good will

toward a laughing God

he just does not understand

he gives up swearing off

things altogether