Sentinel Poem by Dot Church

Like a sentinel you stand
Like a soldier who guards the land.
I know you’re not quite what you seem!
A simple rubbish bin of green:
Used for keeping places clean;
But something, far more, from you, I glean!

Do people ever stop to think of you?
Give you the right that you are due?
Think that deep inside, maybe, you have a soul.
Or do they just see: A gaping hole?
A place for cans or bottles emptied so!
Arrh! But what do mere mortals know!

I know, you’re far more than that
You really have a soul, in fact!
And though seen in many places
You come from differing races...
Brown, black, yellow, but mostly green!
Guarding us from who knows what
Perhaps, from weird aliens unseen!

I ponder what’s inside?
Things that people wish to hide!
Mysterious things? Querulous things?
Sometimes, illicit and illegal things?
Things new, or used, or old? Or really hard
For that special someone to discard!

How do you feel? What makes you so?
How can you tell the things you know?
I’d love to hear the things that people say
While throwing their discarded lives away!
Imagining the tale you’d tell.
I know I wouldn’t even mind the smell!


The truck comes by
As still I ponder why?
Tears you from where you stood.
Wrenching open your gargantuan gob;
Spewing life from deep inside!
All the things, from others, that you hide.

I know you have many secrets inside,
As they take your innards for a ride
Do not fear for again soon. Next week
You will do it all again as I speak.
You’ll be “The Sentinel” as the cycle comes round
On guard! Standing your ground!