GARBAGE

for a King.

Walking
the neighborhood
to bag
your garbage
carelessly
tossed out
the car
catching
the ATM
wind of
receipts
airborne
blowing
forty grand
words
of garbage
living
breathing
dying
on streets
in deserts
of deserted
care
death row
shelters
rare freedom
rides
for your
abandoned
fury garbage
spinning wheels
on asphalt
Saturday
morning
passing by
the mourning
man's bicycle
trailing
a balloon
of collected
garbage
exchanged
for cashed
survival
hungry
for a dream
while brokered
sherpas
carrying
your garbage
left behind
on ominous
Everest,
King of
mountains
one
hundred
thousand
pounds
of garbage
claiming
the dead
of riches 
hailing empty
words of
environmen
ta-lists
masked
in ocean's
animals
swimming
with garbage
and hills
of children
sifting through
land fills
foraging
treasures
to bag
a meal
as humans
dig through
piles
of trash
cans
as shields
from the 
rain of
protests
used by
students leaving
better homes
for homeless
as garbage
collectors toss
privilege into
trucks
while our
hands and feet
raise Hallelujahs
carrying
the 
brokenness
of garbage
for a King.

Garbage for a King  |  deborah t. hewitt

For weeks now, my husband has renewed our commitment to clean up the careless, tossed aside garbage in our neighborhood for the sake of our King and all He has given us. We can do the little picture at home as we walk and thank God for all we have. It can feel totally maddening, as you pickup someone’s coffee cup or dog poop “in a bag” six feet from a trash can, but won’t you join us if you can? It’s the good fight.

Also, if you want to get a pet, please go to the shelter first. We are now throwing away and euthanizing “purebreds” daily in our country. Top abandoned dogs are Huskies and the Belgian Malinois. Literally, designer dogs are sitting in cages with the sweetest mutts. Just watched two Labradoodles, from a rescue I support, get adopted after being found with broken legs wandering in Los Angeles. Such good news they are now in loving homes. Both dogs had completely snapped back legs. This isn’t rare. It’s devastating times for dogs, cats and for discarded working Amish and race horses. It’s sickening for human beings living on the streets, however, for innocent creatures it is almost unreal to know what man does. If you can stomach, here’s a report on the horse slaughter holding pens. Discarded like trash.

Consumption breeds carelessness and irresponsibility. So don’t consume all the cuteness of breeder animals on social media. It’s driving the abandonment. “Likes/attention” can turn into too much responsibility. In church, yesterday, a couple spoke of their kids flying to another state to buy a purebred dog. Thousands of dollars. All I could see is the millions of abandoned faces clamoring for attention in the shelters, tails wagging for a “walk” to their death. Purebreds. I left feeling sad. It’s no joke. It’s never too late to be informed.

The earth is the LORD’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it; for God has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers. - Psalm 24:1-2 

“So I throw up my hands
And praise You again and again
'Cause all that I have is a hallelujah
Hallelujah
And I know it's not much
But I've nothing else fit for a King
Except for a heart singing hallelujah
Hallelujah”

- Gratitude | Brandon Lake

Tarikul Raana | Unsplash

Sylwia Bartyzel | Unsplash

Read about what’s happened to Mount Everest here.