LITTER PICKERS

As a former D.O.E. Litterpicker Crew Supervisor in Washington State, as well as being a current resident of Planet Earth...I love the TRASH is CASH video (page bottom) that I first saw on LINKtv and now have found on You Tube. It is both a catchy and deeply moving tune/video. 

  BUT FIRST...Here's a poem I once wrote about Litter and Litter Pickers...Despite finding roadside guns (no, really) and porno, I never made any CASH from the TRASH. Although there were those VW Bug MOON HUBCAPS... In my history of odd jobs taken to sustain my creative life, being a Department of Ecology Litter Crew Supervisor ranks as a lifetime BEST JOB for WRITERS e-v-e-r...A creative writer's life is at every level a solo journey. You can work on your great or not so great American novel for two years only to have it sit oin a shlef in a notebook...Ah, but what great shelves you say... As a litterpicker (make that 'Supervisor', please) I was able on an hourly basis to SEE my accomplishments; get exercise; didn't talk all day (as opposed to my classroom teaching avocations); was able to listen to truly amazing stories (of Juveniles D's and Community Service offenders complete with accents/dialects, then went home and wrote my own stuff with voices still in my head (good to hear some new voices)...Yes, it was a Great job, however, Praise Geebus that I am not still trudging along I-5 in the rain...Here's that poem:

Litterpickers 
 Litterpickers go out at dawn  quietly they slip by your lawn  Thin men and women without sound  They walk slow bent low to the ground  passing over pheasant deerskin and rats  sleeping men under bridges  cobwebs and bats  They gather man's sign  the stink of man unkind  They fill bags the size of whales  They sing the song of nightingales  Litterpickers march like Trojans to war  and for them the work is hardly a chore  Clearing a path trod with oily shoe  on a journey sadly sought by few  Acid heartburn indigestion  the toll on the body is not in question  Onward and upward through sun and rain  our lives are made cleaner by their pain  Litterpickers bend and scrape  from trash there is no escape  Litterpickers watch as you drive by  You so eager to make those bottles fly  with windows open to spring  My god it's so easy  I can throw anything  Litterpickers have packrat minds all  They often save things short and tall  like faded greenbacks and fancy hubs  You'd be surprised by what lies in shrubs  Litterpickers creep toward the trees  as noonday sun brings them to their knees 
 Litterpickers litterpickers  three bags full  yes sir yes sir  it's all recyclable 
 Litterpickers litterpickers watch 'em dance  smiles on their faces  they watch out for ants 
 Litterpickers litterpickers  ike Buddhas on the road  chanting Hari Krishna Ramigate  don't step on a toad 
 Litterpickers litterpickers  lungs full of monoxide  it's a job that pick pick picks at your pride  Coca-Cola Fanta Sprite  styrofoam and Rainier Light  picking up cans all day  litterpickers dream of trash at night 
  © 1984,2012 Jeff Hartzer

NOW, that you've picked up some trash, here's that GREAT video from You Tube...Enjoy.

 




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