Charles Bukowski

No Lady Godiva

she came to my place drunk
riding a deer up on the front porch:
so many women want to save the world
but can’t keep their own kitchens straight,
but me...
we went inside where I lit three red
candles
poured the wine and I took notes on
her:
 
        latitude behind,
        longitude in
        front. and the
        rest. amazing.
        a woman such as this
        could find
        a zinnia in Hot Springs
        Arkansas.
 
we ate venison for three weeks.
then she slept with the landlord to help pay
the rent.
then I found her a job as a waitress.
I slept all day and when she came home
I was full of the brilliant conversation that she
so much
adored.
 
she died quickly one night leaving the world
much the way it had
been.
 
now I get up early and
go down to the loading docks and wait for
cabbages
oranges
potatoes
to fall from the trucks or to be
thrown away.
 
by noon I have eaten and am asleep
dreaming of paying the rent
with numbered chunks of plastic
issued by a better
world.
Other works by Charles Bukowski...



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