Litter blooms beside the road
like an invasive plant
threatening to exterminate the local flora.

Soggy napkins and cracked straws
clump beside crumpled burger wrappers
and cardboard sleeves that once held your fries.

Styrofoam cups topple over one another.
Pop cans and beer bottles spill their last dregs
to quench flicked cigarette butts.

Every day I watch your trash multiply and spread,
wishing I could remember a bag
to collect your trash, and I want to ask,

How hard can it be to hold that ugly trash
until you get home to toss it in a garbage can
instead of out the window?

After watching and reading the April poetry challenge by Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading for the past several years, I decided to write a poem a day this month. Mary Lee is hosting PO-EMotion, with a different emotion for each day of the month. Today’s focus is DISGUST. For even more poetry fun throughout April, check out the roundup of poetry celebrations and projects at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. 

PS – Last night I did remember to take a trash bag on my walk and collect a bag of trash!