Some People Around Here

George Wallace

some people around here if they put all the practical things in their lives into a basket
and they left them out at the curb for the trash men or some unsuspecting passersby
i mean someone possessing more of an eye for premeditated opportunity than discretion
they'd have nothing left in their houses for the future or for the holidays or for their children
and besides nobody would pick that basket up not ever not even surreptitiously would they
only now and again some very inexperienced person every once in a while
perhaps someone from another part of town who didn't know the way of things around here
might give that basket a shake might paw through everything for awhile
but then he'd be likely to just give a little shrug and a sniff and then he'd be off
like some raccoon disgusted with the incredibly slim pickings around here
i'm talking about some society that operates with so little room for unnecessaries
i'm talking about some society that has nothing except for its practical things to throw away

   George Wallace is Poet Laurete of Suffolk County, New York