a crushed beer can

i look out the kitchen window. they used to run coal trains through the yard. heavy cars shaking the glass at night. now it's just rust and tall weeds. i don't know where the coal went. maybe it burned up in Pittsburgh. i light a cigarette. a stray dog walks down the dead tracks. it stops to sniff a crushed beer can. somebody dumped a mattress on the rails. the metal springs are poking out. it just sits there in the dirt.