At the stoplight waiting for the light nine a.m. downtown San Francisco a bright yellow garbage truck with two garbagemen in red plastic blazers standing on the back stoop one on each side hanging on and looking down into an elegant open Mercedes with an elegant couple in it The man in a hip three-piece linen suit with shoulder-length blond hair & sunglasses The young blond woman so casually coifed with a short skirt and colored stockings on the way to his architect's office And the two scavengers up since four a.m. grungy from their route on the way home The older of the two with grey iron hair and hunched back looking down like some gargoyle Quasimodo And the younger of the two also with sunglasses & long hair about the same age as the Mercedes driver And both scavengers gazing down as from a great distance at the cool couple as if they were watching some odorless TV ad in which everything is always possible And the very red light for an instant holding all four close together as if anything at all were possible between them across that small gulf in the high seas of this democracy Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes. By: Lawrence Ferlinghetti

At the stoplight waiting for the light nine a.m. downtown San Francisco ‘Two Scavengers’ describes a frozen moment in time where two sets of people from different backgrounds are held together at a red traffic light in San Francisco.

Two Scavengers in a Truck, Two Beautiful People in a Mercedes. The contrast between the two sets of people is shown in the title. Scavengers is a derogatory term for the garbage men because is suggests that they live off the rubbish of others. Beautiful people is a compliment. Ferlinghetti is creating stereotypes.

a bright yellow garbage truck with two garbagemen in red plastic blazers standing on the back stoop one on each side hanging on and looking down into an elegant open Mercedes The scavengers are looking down into the Mercedes. This is because the truck is literally higher up. However, this could be a role reversal – people may ‘look down’ on the scavengers because they are portrayed as being poor and dirty; they are considered to be lower class. Ferlinghetti subverts this stereotype as the scavengers are ‘looking down’ on the people in the Mercedes.

with an elegant couple in it The man in a hip three-piece linen suit with shoulder-length blond hair & sunglasses The young blond woman so casually coifed with a short skirt and colored stockings on the way to his architect's office Describing the man’s suit as “hip” implies the beautiful people are fashionable and their lifestyle is desirable. This is a contrast to the “red plastic blazers” worn by the scavengers.

And the two scavengers up since four a.m. grungy from their route on the way home The older of the two with grey iron hair and hunched back looking down like some gargoyle Quasimodo Quasimodo is the hunchback of Notre Dame. What do you think Ferlinghetti is saying about the scavengers here?

And the younger of the two also with sunglasses & long hair about the same age as the Mercedes driver Ferlinghetti tries to show that all people are equal by presenting similarities between the young man in the Mercedes and the young scavenger. Both men are wearing “sunglasses” and have “long hair”. Ferlinghetti emphasises this by saying that the young scavenger and the Mercedes driver are a similar age. This closes the gap between rich and poor by showing that under the surface, people are the same.

And both scavengers gazing down as from a great distance at the cool couple as if they were watching some odorless TV ad in which everything is always possible And the very red light for an instant holding all four close together as if anything at all were possible between them across that small gulf in the high seas of this democracy “as from a great distance” – What is the distance between these two sets of people? “as if anything at all were possible” – What do you think this means? Why wouldn’t these people normally be held together?