deepundergroundpoetry.com

THE ADVENTURE OF STUMPY AND THE DUMPSTER BOY

A three legged dog with brown curly fur waited in the alleyway.
� � �The dog�s name was Stumpy.
The rain and ice had cracked the concrete. Years of waste had washed through. It was slimy and grey.
A boy of seventeen, ragged, hungry, and pale, was rummaging around a dumpster.
Stumpy barked.
A man dressed in beige grabbed hold of the Dumpster Boy and pulled him out. It was the manager of the Magnificent Burger House. He was sweaty and salty and his moustache covered his mouth. �
� � ��What are you doing in my Dumpster?�
The boy had hold of a bag of mouldy burger baps.
� � ��You can�t take those they belong to the Magnificent Patty Company.�
� � ��Nobody is eating them. My dog is hungry.�
� � ��That waste belongs to the Magnificent Patty Company. It�s waste that fuels the Machine.�
� � ��The Machine is well fed, what does it matter if I take a bag of stale baps?�
� � ��You didn�t pay for them. If you come inside the restaurant and buy a burger you can feed it to your dog.�
� � ��I don�t have any money.�
� � ��Too bad.�
� � ��I am keeping these baps.�
� � ��You are not.�
� � �The truck that took the waste to the mouth of the machine beeped as it reversed up to the dumpster. The beige manager picked up Stumpy and threw him into the truck.
� � �Dumpster Boy shouted out in pain. �You bastard.�
� � ��Stay out of my dumpsters.�
� � �Dumpster boy climbed onto the automatic truck.

� � �He rode the truck to the mouth. The truck tipped up, and stumpy, along with the day�s waste, fell into the slop underneath the city. Dumpster boy dived in before the mouth closed.
� � �He plunged into the rancid river. It swept him along. He fought to keep his head above the water. He swallowed the filth and threw up.

� � �Days past deep beneath the city. He searched miles of sewer, miles of trash rivers, miles of green slime. They led him toward heat. The great inferno that burned the waste into power underneath the city. He wept for Stumpy.
He heard a yelping noise. He ran toward it and found Stumpy clinging on to a pipe. The current was pulling him towards a crusher. Dumpster boy pulled his dog out of the river and hugged him. Tears streaming.
� � �He found a ladder up. With Stumpy under his arm, he climbed back to the surface. They were hungry. But that didn�t matter. They were alive. The Machine didn�t eat his dog.