Rag picker on the street Dust eater and maggot breather She can tell the smell Of burning plastic and paper Of turning dung to soil She knows the ways Between the hills of refuse Between the footfalls of her children But who cares who she is The lost and never found Inherited a kingdom thrown away
Who cares what she thinks She finds meanings in a bottle Looks at a glossy magazine and wonders Her slightly bent back aches Sun ravages her skin each day Brazen with resistance like herself Her skin glistens with labors each day Filling her heart with hazy dreams
Who cares what she sees She hears those kids play faraway A world insulated from her own Where plastic is used and thrown away And the worst smells won't make you sway She sees the worth of this world For what it truly is She lives in the belly button Never forgetting it was the beginning And it may be the end
But who cares what she says She's just another sweeper Another rag picker Treasure hunter and bounty filler She sings old forgotten ballads Songs with no beginnings Songs with no creators As she looks for something An old school bag, a plastic earring
But who cares who she is Just another one of these Souls in an eternal sea They never were They never will be An entire generation Of nonentities Forgotten children of Destiny
Rag pickers and sweepers are a common sight in my country. A whole class of people were deemed untouchable because they worked as manual laborers, cleaners and scavengers. Even now, these are the overlooked, second class citizens nobody cares about. I see them all the time. I wish a better life for them, more fulfilling, more real. A dream