liberty
she was sitting in the window
of room 1010 at the Chelsea
in New York,
Janis Joplin’s old room.
it was 104 degrees
and she was on speed
and had one leg over
the sill,
and she leaned out and said,
“God, this is great!”
and then she slipped
and almost went out,
just catching herself.
it was very close.
she pulled herself in
walked over and stretched
on the bed.
I’ve lost a lot of women
in a lot of different ways
but that would have been
the first time
that way.
then she rolled off the bed
landed on her back
and when I walked over
she was asleep.
all day she had been wanting
to see the Statue of Liberty.
now she wouldn’t worry me about that
for a while.
Other works by Charles Bukowski...
