You can learn a lot about a person from their trash.
Or so the saying goes. I prefer watching how a person reacts
when spotting a horse. Or lake. How they tip. If they’re okay
with their toast as wheat not rye. When they’re seated in a booth
at a Denny’s & not expecting the world to come right to them
like an astronaut blanket or a five-year plan. That they too
would like to melt all the guns. Feed them expired meat
& watch them rot like November pumpkins. Give the guns
a sailor’s burial but substitute the sea for a hole somewhere
deep in the Pine Barrens. How they don’t carry a knife
that people can see but never have anything to cut.
How they don’t forward the message to eight different people
in order not to have bad luck in the New Year. That they don’t
believe in the New Year but rather cannot get over the fact
there exists a photograph of a black hole. How they’ve tried
to take that photo but end up keeping a headache journal
for the dogwoods. How they’ve named bees. Love lava lamps.
How after smashing the receiver they always clean up the mess.