Sanitation Workers – Monday morning
Today is the first day of the rest of your life
A dorm-room poster that never inspired
But the nation is sick, trouble’s in the land
And every day now is somebody’s last
Today, the first day of the rest of my life
Out of bed at a decent hour
Children and work have left me now
But I am somebody, even alone
Shoes tied, sunscreen on…
open the door to a morning run
step outside in the egg-yolk sun
life rises in all-purpose flowers
But Monday’s the first day of the rest of the week
a garbage truck roars down my street
past our pristine garden homes
collecting life in a collective reek
Men hang from bars, they wave to me
masked and afraid, others cross the street
The sanitation worker is as key
As the highest office in the Washington D.C.
MLK said at the Memphis strike
That he wasn’t afraid of any man
He said it to the church the April night
before the next day, the last of his life
Alison Law
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