Hungry Scavenger

The world smells so good when you're hungry, like the malevolent phantoms in the cartoons I can feel the aromas pulling me towards these places. The intoxicating scent of Mexican spices, the comfortable aromas of the good old American burger, and the nostalgic smell of simple unhealthy foods from the fast food joints. But then those same feelings can turn into a miserable assault on the senses when I have no money to buy even a single item off the value menu. And it suddenly turns the feelings of comfort and nostalgia into jealousy and hate. I'm jealous of the people inside the restaurant. I hate how they throw away plates with food left over. My stomach hurts.

My stomach hurts, and I become just as bad as the bugs. Disgusting, shameless little scavengers looking for anything and everything to eat. As persistent as the cockroaches, I will take anything that was abandoned on the sidewalk, thrown away in the trash. I once ate a piece of cake that was used as an impromptu ashtray. The frosting was gritty with the burnt tobacco, but I was hungry. After around 3 days of not eating, I found an apple someone had used to smoke marijuana, I ate it whole, seeds and all. Someone had left half a pizza out in the sun just to turn hard and rancid. It had ants crawling all over it, I didn't brush them off as I ate the pizza turned hardtack. Extra protein, I told myself.

I'm not proud of this. In fact, it makes me feel gross to have done these things. But what am I supposed to do? Steal? Starve? I don't really think about it. Like the bugs, I only keep trying to survive off of whatever I can find.

Call me the Human Trashcan. A veritable superman. I'll eat anything that I can. My life never goes according to plan. But if you don't want your food, be it bottled or canned, I'll take it off your hands. I'm not proud of it, I don't feel like a man. But call me the Human Trashcan. I don't want to, but I will eat anything I can.