the party had lasted until eight in the morning.
i was sound asleep in the bedroom, content to lie there until the hour hand rotated another 360 degrees when the shouting came crashing into my head.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE, MAN!" shattered the voice, forcing me to pry my eyes open. outside the window was one of the local land scavengers searching through our garbage, separating the glass from the aluminum from the cups from the crap. the source of the shouting was another land scavenger standing just down the street with his shopping cart of recyclables.
"THIS IS *MY* TERRITORY!" the shopping cart man continued to holler, using the loudest voice possible, sending out a tirade of words so thick that the first scavenger couldn't get a sound of rebuttal in. "WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER! WHERE ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU'RE COMING FROM? GOD-DAMN, YOU'RE NOT EVEN A CARTMAN!" to make his point, he jammed a gloved finger at the shopping cart-less homeless guy. it was obvious that a 'cartman' was higher up in the homeless hierarchy than the unlucky few who have been unable to acquire a shopping cart of their own.
"I MAKE MY *LIVING* FROM THIS SHIT! GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE! GO BACK TO WHERE YOU COME FROM, MAN! STAY THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY NEIGHBORHOOD!!"
the cartman continued his rants in a never-ending storm of verbage until the first scavenger was able to spew a few shits, fucks and goddamns back at him. it was like trying to ward off rain with tissue paper. once the first scavenger was able to get his obscenities in edgewise, he made a threatening gesture but then shuffled away from the gold mine of beer bottles.
the defeated scavanger eventually left our street and everything returned to silence. satisfied that he had made his point, the cartman shuffled his way towards our garbage and dug right in. i crawled back into bed and listened to the sounds of empty beer bottles on a sunday morning. <8.22.00>
all words (c) filmfatale industries 2000