In the evening

The light is almost gone
putting out the garbage
doing my recycle duty
two neat bins to drag rattle clack to the street.

The avenue is empty, no sound, no other bins there
but I have started something
and down the street the rattle clack begins
all the neighbors come out
waving
rattleclacking
for the Friday morning sleep.

Just a little community connection
the blue bin for milk bottles, news papers
the brown bin for left over wrappers, kitty litter and diapers
something we all do
rattleclack.

Just one knot, one tie
one little leaf in the neighborhood language
a rattleclack thing, in the darkness
a dozen people who don't want to get up at 5 a.m. to put their garbage out.