You can hear the droning noise of the old engine as we slowly but surely traverse through every street of your affluent area.
Our voices screaming to tell the driver to halt in front of your dirt bins. Most of the time you place your foul-smelling bins out the night before we get there.
It has the worst smells known to man. But every time we inhale that smell there is nothing we can do to stop nausea rising.
You don’t seem to appreciate what we do for you and we aren’t worthy of even a polite greeting or a thank you. It costs nothing to be polite or smile but often it seems you are too important to glance our way.
You look at us as if we are less than human and you judge us harshly when we greet.
Pond scum is what we are in your eyes. You view us as less without knowing that this job helps to feed our families.
But you already cast that first stone at us and as we continue emptying bin by bin the stones of judgment grow higher.
We may not work in an office environment with expensive air conditioners to maintain temperatures. But we are content that the work we do puts food on our tables.
We don’t need to avoid those dreaded calls from creditors because often we do not qualify for credit. But we are relatively debt-free.
Our families value us and are happy.
Most Sundays we attend church to give thanks for what we have even though it’s not much.
Years ago, we finished school with big dreams and hopes for the future but sadly this was the only work we could find. Some people have nothing so we were grateful.
The next time you see any dirtman try to see the man beyond the dirt because we are more than just a dirtman.
