TRASH | J.J. Campbell

digging through the trash
any street corner
any big city

they are looking for the america
they read about
the one they saw in the movies
the apple pies
the wealth
the streets of gold
and names in neon

instead they are rummaging
for french fries
discarded cigarettes
waiting for the better off
to come off a few coins
so that one day
they can buy a meal

but unlike most of us
they haven't quit
they don't think of themselves
as failures
and when they look
in the mirror each day
they don't think about suicide

they just look at it as
another day the
american dream may come true

unlike us
this is not as good as the rest
mass of society

we look in the mirror each day
with no hope
no dreams
praying that a random bullet
has our name on it