Merry Magdalene

That is Merry Magdalene
Daily carry bags of tin
Earning in a day
About the twenty dollars

Average men and women make an hour
She carries to the counters
All the empty soda bottles
And empty aluminummm

Coca-Cola breakfast
Mountain Dew for brunch
We consume an A&W
After an orange Crush

Soda after clocking out
So duhh — after supper
But are we truly thirsty ? or
have we had enougher

Magdalene is handlelin’
Rats and flies, trashy bins
You’re glaring at her
With your superiority

She’s an immigrant with fingerprints
You’re the back of her existence
You’re just a passerby
She’s tipping flipping cans like drip, drip

Without her bag of empties
From her morning scavenging
Her triple daughters empty tummies
They wouldn’t have a thing

Now you’re in the office pantry
Judging Ruffles and Lays
Co-worker urges Kombucha
Eyeballs double in display

Just outside your office
Magdalene is dumpster diving
You’re holding Ghirardelli and granola
Still deciding

She is a widowed mother
At the center of recycling
To you she is a rodent
To her daughters she’s providing

So tell me who’s the animal
The woman in the streets
Or the spectator
Spitting racial epithets from cheeks ?

We’re in a pecking order
Magdelene is a survivor
She’s turning all your waste
Into budgetary fibers

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