trash day

the trash

was getting so foul
from being rained on
and then sun-baked

I couldn't stand it anymore

the landlord is away a few days
and I have no access to the dump

so I finally checked it out
and amidst flies
and rottenness

the trash bags were completely infested
with maggots
and disgustingness
like everything I've unconsciously
tossed in the last week

or two
from my ever-more suspect fridge
including discarded spoiled raw chicken and such

obviously a maggot-fave

-----------------

I thought to:
bury the three bags (too environmentally inrresponsible)
throw them on the roof (that's just so high school)
empty them in the arroyo (a last tribute to Santa Fe)
break into the main house for the dump pass (too complicated)
wait two more days for the landlord (not an option)
and phone-a-friend (for either empathy or advice)

before deciding a dumpster was needed

unfortunately today was the longest day
and brightest sunlight of the year

--------------------------------

but the smell drove me onward
a strangely persistent aspect of reality
spurring me to action
despite all my instincts to try to ignore the situation

it was so bad
that I had to put the bags in new trash bags
to try to temper the foulness before putting them in my trunk

and then go pour body wash on my arms

but the maggots were everywhere
so I kept freaking out and dropping the new bags
until I had a number of half-assed bags of horror
with trapped flies screaming to get out
finally shoveled into a sack

and tied tightly enough that I hope no maggots got out in the frikkin trunk

-------------------------------

after washing again
I drove into town
like the Long Island Garbage Barge

stinking so bad
not even fan-on-high
and all-windows-down
could mitigate my growing nausea

and couldn't find any place on the southside
so I drove out to Madrid where I was initally headed

considered pouring laundry detergent on the bags
like I did in the slimy trash can I'd gotten them out of

instead left the car parked in the sun a couple hours
fortunately with no cops passing
what was ostensibly a public nuisance

and drank beer

-------------------

reassured by my friend the bartender
I made a beeline for town

amidst ever worsening shades
of now-hallucinogenic fumes

where I join an illustrious group of crewmembers
fulltimers not excluded
who have used a certain familiar dumpster as personal trash receptacle

I buried them but can only hope
deep enough

that the grossness is not so horrific
that people start freaking out tonight about the smell
and bust me

I mean who knows what else is in those bags

--------------------------------------

certainly gives a whole crapload of
putrid food for thought
about the postmodern human condition

it may be in 50 years
that we realize the world is neither good nor bad

neither the new age heaven
nor violent hell that we tended to project
in the old days of now

but rather
an overheated atmosphere
trapping oceans of filth
leaky toxic landfills
and flooded graveyards

with billions of half-sick people
without hope for sanitation

amidst a world
simply more disgusting
than we could have imagined