Alan Gutierrez

A sanitation worker on St. Philip. He sweeps a Coke can into a dustpan at the end of long vacuum cleaner like handle. He drops the Coke can in to a rolling fifty gallon trash can. He rolls toward Derbingy St, back the way I came. I’m wondering if the rest of my walk to the French Quarter will be Coke can free.

More than half the structures on this block are abandoned, there are vacant lots on either side, the upriver sidewalk is overgrown and crumbling, tires are basking in the sun in puddles of mud, while the worker rolls onward in search of a particular type of refuse. Packaging, I assume.

The sidewalks reconstitute themselves as I approach Claiborne. They are solid. I imagine them to have just been throughly swept, although there are tell tale scraps of wrappers. At Claiborne I see a troop of men with brooms, bins and pans rolling along underneath I-10. I wonder why one man decided to make a detour down St. Philip.