Litter Hunt II

From this common land, Earth Day brings

six large sacks of litter – discarded fragments

collected piece by piece – extendable

picking arms, click in weekday sunshine.

Sacks stacked carefully beside a litter bin,

a multitude of plastics, foil, metal – all the brands,

cigarette butts, empty cans of lager,

a broken bottle of beer, shop carrier bags

crisp packets, PET bottles: Pepsi, Coke,

each taking many hundreds of years to decay,

a face mask, coffee cups and lids, dropped, thrown,

abandoned by those who do not seem to care.

Diligently, blades of grass uncovered, undergrowth

and fallen twigs exposed, roots of the Common return.