THERE IS A NEW SCAVENGER

There is a new scavenger

on 15th street

A woman

the garbage piles are not higher

or of a better composition

Yet there is a new scavenger

on my street

I see her in the mornings

poking slowly with a stick

her sack half full, half rotted

What can it mean

I ask

And pass her by

My heart secure behind a handkerchief

                                             - Lorena Barros 

1968