Trashcan Lives
Trashcan Lives - meaning Summary
Cold Wind and Neglect
Bukowski's short poem watches the marginalized men "on the row" through the lens of a cold, harsh night. It contrasts informal survival in a democracy—ownership, locks, hoarding—with the overt oppression of dictatorships, arguing both systems abandon their derelicts. The recurring cold wind underscores indifference and isolation. The speaker's small wish for a bottle of red gestures toward fleeting comfort amid societal neglect.
Read Complete Analysesthe wind blows hard tonight and it's a cold wind and I think about the boys on the row. I hope some of them have a bottle of red. it's when you're on the row that you notice that everything is owned and that there are locks on everything. this is the way a democracy works: you get what you can, try to keep that and add to it if possible. this is the way a dictatorship works too only they either enslave or destroy their derelicts. we just forgot ours. in either case it's a hard cold wind.
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