On the Recycling Day
Yuan Changming
One neighbor took out a blue box
Full of cat skulls and dog legs
Rather than glass or plastic bottles
Another carries out a yellow bag
Containing human bones, mostly children’s
Instead of magazines or paper products
A third pushed out a green bin
Filled with failed evils and devils
Where there should be leaves and twigs
Behind every house in a neighboring back alley
The garbage truck is placing a big time bomb
First published in Down in the Dirt and later included in the anthology The Housewives Go Nuclear (2013)