NYC Trash Stories

Unemployed Coat Rack

Posted on by NYC Trash Stories

There was a time,  When I wore hats and jackets, I greeted rambunctious children, And their front-door racket. The kids’ snowy scarves, And their parents’ designer coats, Were all my responsibility,  Including the pockets with secret notes. Inside the Ralph...Read More

Wrist Taker

Posted on by NYC Trash Stories

Pretty in pink, Is what they said. The seat of your love,  Where other men bled.  Their blood of black grease, Left stained on your arms. They traded their hearts, For your furniture charms. And then I came along, And...Read More

Lamp’s Last Words

Posted on by NYC Trash Stories

The necklace of lights,Draped over 55th Street, Shine their cold brilliance,On my sidewalk defeat. What happens to your light,When it does nothing wrong? But the passage of time,Strikes the final gong. This freezing night,In north Hells Kitchen, Was not the...Read More

Screen Time

Posted on by NYC Trash Stories

You stared at me for hours, As I fed you information. You clicked and cursed at me, While making your creations. We were a creative pair, Changing the world together. But now I’m alone and outside, Battered by the weather....Read More

Mind Control

Posted on by NYC Trash Stories

You told me how to cut my hair,And talked over what I had to say. Mind control begins when you sit down,And trust the process to be okay. But then the money stops flowing,And so do your guns of hot...Read More

Circles and Wood

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

What looks like a straight line, Can bend without notice. Until the path forward, Betrays what fate showed us. The life you expected, Was really your family’s past. And now that you’re grown, You know the truth at last. The...Read More

Before the Rain Returns

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

Reflections live in the puddle of my mind, Remembering the taxi that left me behind. I made this for you with great affair, And you headed north without a care. Now you are gone and left my life behind, Just...Read More

Broken By Irony

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

The orange cones are for protection,  Showing passersby the holy direction.  But here I am inverted and splayed,  In dire need of that reflective aid.  No one loves a broken umbrella on a rainy night,  Dead on the sidewalk like...Read More

You Were Always Me

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

I was once loved, And hugged every day. But everyone grew up, And forgot how to play. They kept me around, Because I reminded them of youth. But life kept going, And revealed a different truth. Money and power, Replaced...Read More

Sphinx About It

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

NYC is full of Greek mythology, you just have to look for it. You could visit the Met’s Sphinx of Hatshepsut, named after the female Egyptian pharaoh (1473–58 BCE), who gained museum-immortality through the sculpted body of a lion with...Read More

Coming Clean

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

What do people mean,  When they finally come clean? And wash their bed sheets into flags of surrender, While laundering their souls in a hot air blender? Life is a whirlwind measured by an invisible clock,  Mocked by the injustices...Read More

Signing Off

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

52,000 marathon runners, But this sign is for you. For everything you are, And everything you do. 26.2 miles is an incredibly long race, But so is life and the challenges we face. I’m so grateful that your miles are...Read More

Rough Night Out

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

I escaped the claws of a lion To be abandoned in the rain, But I was gloriously free To start my life again. But the night brought a recklessness That only a sad mind can understand, Because when you’re alone...Read More

So True

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

Sometimes the trash we encounter on the streets of New York City has its own message, and any sort of commentary or artful exploration meaning for isn't necessary. This was one of those times. The trash, and its surrounding context,...Read More

Goodbye My Castle

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

Forgotten memories in every room, Now sidewalk trash under a rising moon. The imagination needs a place to play, Until life gets real and there is rent to pay. The cost of growing up is dire indeed, As we all...Read More

Petals

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

Both of us tried, You know we did. One rose of a soul, We felt like kids. Then one of us fell,  Or were we pushed? Onto the sidewalk, Where we were smushed.  And now we’re alone, Our love became...Read More

Better

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

Walking south on the west side down, Black umbrellas hiding faces all around. Suddenly a flower in the cold winter rain, And a bright hat that no one wants to claim. Such is the price of January weather, As the...Read More

Trash Item of the Year: Chairs 

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

I’m guessing 2022 will go down in history as the year New Yorkers got out of their chairs and began to live again. After seemingly countless false starts declaring “New York City is back!”, it wasn’t until later in 2022...Read More

Life Is A Marathon

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

My fiancé has run the NYC marathon five times. A few years ago she introduced me to her favorite part of the event: Finish Line After Dark.  Long after the sun has set and the runners have drifted off to...Read More

Is This Me? – Out Of Air (Part Two)*

Posted on by nyctrashtalk_4p0wuo

Is this me? Is this really who I am? Abandoned in a doorway, I was just in a trash can. Is this really me, Can anyone live like this? When all I ever wanted, Was to belong and have a...Read More