Out of early morning he comes
like a vendor peddling wares;
aluminum cans rattle in the steel shopping cart
as he rattles along.

Scouring dumpsters for twelve-ounce ore,
his time is spent traveling streets
pitted with old fliptops and discarded
cigarette butts:
fossils in asphalt.

Living with garbage,
the end result of civilzation,
he collects society's castoffs only to return them,
begin the cycle again.