wednesday is rubbish day 

so we take our rooms apart
& set them out 
on the curb. everyone is doing it.
we mirror each other. i started
because i saw a piled of broken wooden chairs 
in front of the building next door. 
a truck will come 
& make everything beautiful.
i set out the broken stool but i don't want
the stool to be lonely so i add another
& another & another until i've laid out
all our chairs even the wooden one 
in the corner with the regal arms 
& the bean bag who wasn't bothering anyone.
this is a cleansing i tell myself 
& the neighbor people are working too.
someone tosses their mattresses down
on the sidewalk--stacks them one on top
of another. another person drops 
appliance apart appliance: a toaster 
a blender & a coffee machine--
the glass basin shatters. each glass fragment 
turns into sugar in the air. we all have
too many objects. i witness a man
reach into his mouth & pull out
a trombone & i remember that somewhere
my trumpet lives playing itself to death.
that murky bell a remembered hallway. 
there are children snapping crayons 
& old men tearing pages from books. 
we don't acknowledge on another
but we see what's happening. no one will be
the same after the garbage truck comes
& everyone is looking to be transformed.
i'll do anything for that feeling & 
so will they. what else can we 
rid ourselves of?
one woman takes the inserts out of her shoes 
& another removes the laces. 
all these parts. so many pieces. 
there must be something more
we can do without. light bulbs unscrewed 
& set on the sidewalk--they flicker with light
from all the tension & static in the air.
the trash trucks come from
the sky or at least that's what it seems.
we don't want to stand 
too close so we watch from our windows.
huddled closely as we witness them 
grip a hold of everything with strong gloved hands.
i order gloves to be delivered in 1-2 days.
maybe that's what gives them powers.
we will sleep tonight on blank floors.
something like starting over--
reborn into nothing. all our clothes 
turn to birds & fly out the open window.
the windows push themselves out 
& break on the cement below.
all over the townspeople are thankful
& share stories of everything they had 
that morning. we pray to the trash trucks 
to come again each day. to please
take everything. 
make us clean.