Charles Bukowski
I don’t beat the walls with my fists
I just sit
but it rushes in
a tide of it.
 
the woman in the court behind me howls,
weeps every night.
sometimes the county comes
and takes her away for a day or two.
 
I believed she was suffering the loss
of a great love
until one day she came over and told me about
it—
she had lost 8 apartment houses
to a gigolo who had swindled her out
of them.
she was howling and weeping over loss of property.
she began weeping as she told me
then with a mouth lined with stale lipstick
and smelling of garlic and onions
she kissed me and told me:
“Hank, nobody loves you if you don’t have money.”
 
she’s old, almost as old as I am.
 
she left, still weeping...
 
the other morning at 7:30 a.m. two black
attendants came with their stretcher,
only they knocked on my door.
 
“come on, man,” said the tallest
one.
“wait,” I said, “there’s a mistake.”
 
I was terribly hungover
standing in my torn bathrobe
hair hanging down over my eyes.
 
“this is the address they gave us, man,
this is 5437 and 2/5’s isn’t it?”
 
“yes.”
 
“come on, man, don’t give us no shit.”
 
“the lady you want is in the back there.”
 
they both walked around back.
 
“this door here?”
 
“no, no, that’s my back door. look go up those steps behind
you there. it’s the door to the east, the one with the mailbox
hanging loose.”
 
they went up and banged on the door. I watched them take her
away. they didn’t use the stretcher. she walked between them.
and the thought occurred to me that they were taking the wrong
one but I wasn’t sure.
Login to comment.
Other works by Charles Bukowski...



Top
Logo

Looks like your ad blocker is on.

We rely on ads to keep creating quality content for you to enjoy for free.

Please support our site by disabling your ad blocker.

Choose your Ad Blocker

  • Adblock Plus
  • Adblock
  • Adguard
  • Ad Remover
  • Brave
  • Ghostery
  • uBlock Origin
  • uBlock
  • UltraBlock
  • Other
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock Plus icon
  2. Click the large blue toggle for this website
  3. Click refresh
  1. In the extension bar, click the AdBlock icon
  2. Under "Pause on this site" click "Always"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Adguard icon
  2. Click on the large green toggle for this website
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ad Remover icon
  2. Click "Disable on This Website"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the orange lion icon
  2. Click the toggle on the top right, shifting from "Up" to "Down"
  1. In the extension bar, click on the Ghostery icon
  2. Click the "Anti-Tracking" shield so it says "Off"
  3. Click the "Ad-Blocking" stop sign so it says "Off"
  4. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock Origin icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the uBlock icon
  2. Click on the big, blue power button
  3. Refresh the page
  1. In the extension bar, click on the UltraBlock icon
  2. Check the "Disable UltraBlock" checkbox
  3. Marque la casilla de verificación "Desactivar UltraBlock"
  1. Please disable your Ad Blocker
  2. Disable any DNS blocking tools such as AdGuardDNS or NextDNS

If the prompt is still appearing, please disable any tools or services you are using that block internet ads (e.g. DNS Servers).