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Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

relentless as the tarantula

they’re not going to let you
sit at a front table
at some cafe in Europe
in the mid-afternoon sun.
you do, somebody’s going to
drive by and
spray your guts with a
submachine gun.
 
they’re not going to let you
feel good
for very long
anywhere.
the forces aren’t going to
let you sit around
fucking off and
relaxing.
you’ve got to do it
their way.
 
the unhappy, the bitter and
the vengeful
need their
fix—which is
you or somebody
anybody
in agony, or
better yet
dead, dropped into some
hole.
 
as long as there are
human beings about
there is never going to be
any peace
for any individual
upon this earth (or
anywhere else
they might
escape to).
 
all you can do
is maybe grab
ten lucky minutes
here
or maybe an hour
there.
 
something
is working toward you
right now, and
mean you
and nobody but
you.

#1993 #AmericanWriters #ThePleasuresOfTheDamned

Other works by Charles Bukowski...
Save The Pier

you shoulda been at this party, I know you hate parties but you seem to be at most of them… anyhow, I took my girl, you know her—
The Race

it is like this when you slip down, done like a wound-up victrola (you remember those?) and you go downtown
103 degrees

she cut my toenails the night befo… and in the morning she said, “I th… just lay here all day.” which meant she wasn’t going to wo… she was at my apartment—which mean…
Some People

some people never go crazy. me, sometimes I’ll lie down behind… for 3 or 4 days. they’ll find me there. it’s Cherub, they’ll say, and
 2
the meek have inherited

if I suffer at this typewriter think how I’d feel among the lettuce-pickers of Salinas?
Ham on Rye: 18

Frank liked airplanes. He lent me all his pulp magazines about World War 1. The best was Flying Aces. The dog-fights were great, the Spads and the Fokkers mixing it. I read all the stor...
my atomic stockpile

cleaned my place the other day first time in ten years and found 100 rejected poems: fastened them all to a clipboard much bad reading.
A 340 Dollar Horse and a Hundred Dollar Whore

don’t ever get the idea I am a poe… at the racetrack any day half drun… betting quarters, sidewheelers and… but let me tell you, there are som… who go where the money goes, and s…
 1
Women: 15

Lydia phoned me in the morning. “Whenever you get drunk,” she said, “I’m going out dancing. I went to the Red Umbrella last night and I asked men to dance with me. A woman has a right t...
Post Office. Chapter I: 8

There was another German Shepherd. It was hot summer and he came BOUNDING out of a back yard and then LEAPED through the air. His teeth snapped, just missing my jugular vein. “OH JESUS!...
doom and siesta time

my friend is worried about dying he lives in Frisco I live in L.A. he goes to the gym and works with the iron and hits
rain or shine

the vultures at the zoo (all three of them) sit very quietly in their caged tree and below
one of the hottest

she wore a platinum blond wig and her face was rouged and powder… and she put the lipstick on making a huge painted mouth and her neck was wrinkled
The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

if I suffer at this typewriter think how I’d feel among the lettuce— pickers of Salinas?
A Pleasant Afternoon in Bed

red summers and black satin charcoal and blood ringing the sheets while snails are stepped on and moths go batty



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