Owning Stuff

The man obsessed with ownership is not unlike the bag lady.

The bag lady has a five foot high stack of weathered

grey soggy  rotting garbage bags in a rusted shop ping cart.

She will not part with. these possessions .

She is always in search of more trash to add to the pile.

She doesn’t know what’s in the bags.

She protects them with her life.

She is insane .

At two in the morning if you listen carefully

she lays on her back  at the corner of Bay and King

in the Toronto  financial district

and she howls at the moon.

Derek Earl Houghton