The garbage cans went flying

a poem about a blustery day

Have you ever had a series of days that are so full of ups and downs that, when everything finally settles, you still feel a bit stunned and flustered? That’s how I was feeling last night after an unexpectedly tumultuous weekend. So, this morning, rather than write my usual Monday essay, I decided to take it easy on myself and share a poem with you instead.

This poem was inspired by two things: 1) a blustery day and 2) the poem The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes. On a particularly blustery day—which also happened to be garbage day—after heading outside to deal with the mess of toppled garbage cans, the first line of this poem came to me, patterned after the first stanza of Alfred Noyes’ poem.

I wrote the first stanza mostly as a joke. But later I thought it would be a fun exercise to continue it and see how long I could keep the pattern going. Over the course of a year I wrote only one more partial stanza, and then a few weeks ago I locked in and finished it. Here it is, for your reading pleasure!

(But before you read it, please go read The Highwayman if you’ve never read it before so you can appreciate my poem fully.)

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The Garbage Cans Went Flying

The wind was gusty bluster. The air was crisp and dry.
The sun was a gold medallion fixed in the winter sky.
The branches waved in the flurry, and flexed as branches should
When the garbage cans went flying
	flying—flying!
The garbage cans went flying, throughout the neighborhood.

In quite a clumsy flight they fled with lids that flapped and flipped.
They skidded, thumped and tumbled as the breezes whirled and whipped.
The contents all a-clutter, there were papers everywhere!
They scattered with a flutter, 
The store ads all a-flutter
yes, the junk mail all a-flutter as it caught up in the air.

Over the yards and through the streets the trash was free to blow.
It snagged high in the branches, and on fences down below.
It flew past doors and windows, and the people who were home
Watched from behind their curtains,
Watched with a shrug through their curtains,
As trash from their toppled waste bins continued to flit and roam.

But some folks heard the ruckus and came rushing out their doors
To try and catch the bits of trash that flew about in scores.
They dashed down streets and sidewalks, snatching garbage on their way
And filled up all the trash cans
And rolled back all the trash cans
They put back all the trash cans in the hope that they would stay.

Soon the garbage trucks came by to empty every bin,
And though the trucks themselves indeed caused quite a noisy din,
Up they streets they grumbled, putting garbage in its place
As empty trash cans bumbled,
Onto sidewalks tumbled,
Then at last were rolled and rumbled back into their storage space.

The wind continued to bluster and the leaves did fly around,
But from the empty garbage cans there came hardly a sound.
They stood in their spots, unmoving as the chilly breezes blew.
There was thumping in the noon-light
A few small bumps in the noon-light
Just quiet thumps in the noon-light, and the cans no longer flew.

Yet still on a gusty day they say, when the air is crisp and dry
And the sun is a gold medallion fixed in the winter sky
And the branches wave in the flurry, and flex as branches should 
That the garage cans go flying
	flying-flying!
The garbage cans go flying throughout the neighborhood.

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Picture books about windy days

• Kate, who Tamed the Wind by Liz Garton Scanlon, illustrated by Lee White

• Flora’s Very Windy Day by Jeanne Birdsall, illustrated by Matt Phelan

• Kite Day: A Bear and Mole Story by Will Hillenbrand

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The 100 Day Project begins!

Yes, I decided to do the 100 Day Project again this year, though I’m getting started one day late. This year’s project is writing rather than art because I’ll be working fairly consistently on my illustration projects over the next couple of months at least. So, this year I decided to spend 100 days writing haiku! I have a haiku through the Bible project that this will help me focus on, but also I’ve been wanting to begin a daily haiku practice, and this will help me with that! I’ll be sharing some of my haiku here in this newsletter as well as on my social media channels, such as Substack notes and Instagram. I hope you’ll follow along!

Are you doing the 100 Day Project?

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