Take Out Your Own Trash

i hear a sermon on
youtube that makes me laugh.

the pastor says in his
guttural deep
voice, gesturing as he
keeps his glasses
on his nose.

take out the trash and put
it on the curb, he says
forcefully,
don't expect God to take
out your trash.
do it your self. it's your
trash, you got yourself into
this mess
and you have the power to get
yourself out.

there's a rumble and a roar
in his preaching, applause
and cheers, amens
as he preaches the paint
of the walls.

i can't help but laugh.
He's so right.

sometimes you let that old
bag of trash sit in the kitchen
or in the basement way too
long, stinking the place up.
what good there was in it,
is long gone.

but
of course it has nothing
to do with trash in the literal
sense of the word.

it's another kind of trash
altogether.