We are the Garbagemen

by Uriah Maravilla Greer

Bring us your corpses,
your moltings,
your mold,
lay in our arms every apocryphal child—
for we are the Garbagemen,
we are guilt-eaters.
Feign not your wearied indiscretions;
you have nothing to prove here.
We have weighed judgment and found it wanting.
Pay us to auger your sewer main,
unhorde your traumas,
this week, we’ll even embalm and bury your dead.
We’ll fumigate your families,
demo regret and extract your rot,
lay out our traps,
spread neglecticide.
It’s easy!
So come, seek a consultation for the soul.
We’ll give you a quote on your disillusionment
and never tell you where we take it
for we are the height of discretion—
we would never make the mistake
of pretending our footprints indelible.
Once done, we pack up clean, and we’re gone.
Just sign below,
and no one will know
we were ever
even
here.