A Nickel a Can

They paw through the garbage,
Retrieving the cans
And bottles to get the deposit
Which, likely, have come from
Apartments nearby where more wait
In a pantry or closet.

A nickel a can, which
Means nothing to most
Is the source of their urban survival.
The beer and the soda
We drink and we toss, unaware
They await its arrival.

Imagine depending
On other folks’ trash
To furnish the means to keep living.
If only more thought of
The souls such as these,
Perhaps there’d be more to our giving.