aluminum cans and scraps of paper

it amazes me sometimes
what a thief can attribute a simple
aluminum can or a piece of paper
to
after they've logged onto Fictionpress
and typed in 'aluminum can' or 'scrap of paper'
in the search engine
and gathered up the bits of inspiration
that the original writer of those poems had not trimmed off

if every original poem had been trimmed
we'd have beautiful-
-ly dying
roses with that one last thorn
that's meant to stab us in the heart
and let the tears spill

but no one really trims their poems
after the fall of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
so I guess
anyone who does will be treasured like a
blue rose
in full bloom
and all those thorns now lying in the wastepaper basket
on top of your old soda cans and bills