GARBAGE-DANCE

by Joanna M. Weston
                                     
        we danced
the music of fish drying
in steam over oily water

                we danced
the smell of fetid coughing
drifting through tin walls
over health clinic     wafted
round mountains of city garbage

    we danced
while starved sweepers
started a new dump across town
the only bread laced with chemicals
we ate at midnight in heavy rain

      we danced                              
the scavenger’s stick
beat our bare feet
while children died
under garbage trucks