latero story

(can pickers)

i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting in the sun as a latero
a job invented by national and state laws
designed to re-cycle aluminum cans
to return to consumer acid laden
gastric inflammation pituitary glands
coca diet rite low-cal godsons
of artificially flavored malignant
indigestions somewhere down the line
of a cancerous cell

i collect from garbage cans in outdoor facilities
congested with putrid residues
my hands shelving themselves
opening plastic bags never knowing
what to encounter

several times a day i touch evil rituals
slit throats of chickens
tongues of poisoned rats
salivating on my index finger
smells of month old rotten food
next to pamper's diarrhea
dry blood infectious diseases
hypodermic needles tissued with
heroine water drops pilfered in
slimy grease blood hazardous waste materials
but i cannot use rubber gloves
they undermine my daily profit

i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting during the day as a latero
making it big in america
someday i might become experienced enough
to offer technical assistance
to other lateros
i am thinking of publishing
my own guide to latero collecting
and founding a latero's union to offer
medical dental benefits

i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting at night as a latero
i am considered some kind of expert
at collecting cans during fifth avenue parades
i can now hire workers at twenty
five cents an hour guaranteed salary
and fifty per cent of two and one half cents
profit on each can collected
i am a twentieth-century welfare recipient
moonlighting at midnight as a latero
i am becoming an entrepreneur
an american success story
i have hired bag ladies to keep peddlers
from my territories
i have read in some guide to success
that in order to get rich
to make it big
i have to sacrifice myself
moonlighting until dawn by digging
deeper into the extra can margin of profit
i am on my way up the opportunistic
ladder of success
in ten years i will quit welfare
to become a legitimate businessman
i'll soon become a latero executive
with corporate conglomerate intents
god bless america.