trash man

[Erthona]

Curbside waste collectors make about $22,000 a year at the low end. So in general, unless they have a whole lot of kids, they would not get much in food stamps. So this shows a bit of a misunderstanding of the reality and more operating out of some kind of past nostalgia. It also shows a certain stereotype. This takes the form of pity, where the pity is directed at a group of people that the person who pities them has little real knowledge of. In a word, it seems degrading, more than making a case for, although I feel sure it was the latter the writer was aiming at.   
I can see the lines are supposed to suggests a one sided, present dialogue at beginning and end, however this suffers from lack of accurate punctuation. The poor punctuation in this is also fighting against where the poem wants to go. Regardless, were all the technical errors corrected, there is little of substance to hang ones hat on. The overt repetition also severely hinders the poem. I can see how the writer is attempting a reverse image with the long line as the fulcrum.

I really like the idea of negative and positive mirror images and having this be reflected in the physical appearance of the poem, but the application here is hardly worthy of the idea.

Dale