Happy 86th Chinaski

[jack_babalon]

Some people never go crazy. What truly horrible lives they must lead.
~"Betting on the Muse"
Henry Charles Bukowski
August 16, 1920 – March 9, 1994

The Poetry Reading
at high noon
at a small college near the beach
sober
the sweat running down my arms
a spot of sweat on the table
I flatten it with my finger
blood money blood money
my god they must think I love this like the others
but it's for bread and beer and rent
blood money
I'm tense lousy feel bad
poor people I'm failing I'm failing
a woman gets up
walks out
slams the door
a dirty poem
somebody told me not to read dirty poems
here
it's too late.
my eyes can't see some lines
I read it
out-
desperate trembling
lousy
they can't hear my voice
and I say,
I quit, that's it, I'm
finished.
and later in my room
there's scotch and beer:
the blood of a coward.
this then
will be my destiny:
scrabbling for pennies in tiny dark halls
reading poems I have long since beome tired
of.
and I used to think
that men who drove buses
or cleaned out latrines
or murdered men in alleys were
fools.

Comments

[daucus-carota.livejournal.com]

Perhaps a stupid question, but did they pick the movie release date to coincide with this week or was that a coinkydink?

Today is also the 29th anniversary of Elvis' death.

xxx

[jackbabalon23.livejournal.com]

Now that you mention it maybe so. It's been out ('Factotum') in England for quite a while now but I tend to think it falls under the providence of 'Coinky-dink'.

Happy Death Day to The King!
*fank yew-fank yew very-much*

[efire360.livejournal.com]

snap crackle pop

Like, man

[tausirhasirim.livejournal.com]

Cool.