the veryest, by Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

the veryest

here comes the fishhead singing

here comes the baked potato in drag

here comes nothing to do all day long

here comes another night of no sleep

here comes the phone ringing the wrong voice

here comes a termite with a banjo

here comes a flagpole with blank eyes

here comes a cat and a dog wearing nylons

here comes a machine gun singing

here comes bacon burning in the pan

here comes a voice saying something dull with authority

here comes a newspaper stuffed with small red birds

with flat brown beaks

here comes a woman carrying a torch

grenade

deathly love

here comes victory carrying one bucket of guts

and one bucket of blood

while stumbling over the berry bush

and here comes a little lamb

and here comes Mary at last

and the sheet hangs out the window

and the bombers head east west north south

get lost

get tossed like salad

all the fish in the sea line up and form

one line

one long line

one very long long line

the veryest longest line you could ever imagine

and we get lost

walking past purple mountains.

we walk lost

bare at last like the knife blade

or the electric shock

having given

having spit it out like an unexpected olive seed

as the girl at the call ser vice

screams over the phone:

don’t call back! you sound like a jerk!”

#1993 #AmericanWriters #ThePleasuresOfTheDamned

Other works by Charles Bukowski...

about pain

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As the Poems Go

as the poems go into the thousands… realize that you’ve created very little. it comes down to the rain, the sun… the traffic, the nights and the da…

Post Office. Chapter III: 9

On Christmas I had Betty over. She baked a turkey and we drank. Betty always liked huge Christmas trees. It must have been 7 feet tall, and 1/2 as wide, covered with lights, bulbs, tins...

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Our 30 minutes was now devoted to scheme training. They gave us each a deck of cards to learn and stick into pur cases. To pass the scheme you had to throw 100 cards in 8 minutes or les...

like a cherry seed in the throat

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little tigers everywhere

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how come you’re not unlisted?

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Women: 66

I took Tammie. We got there a little early and went to a bar across the street. We got a table. “Now don’t drink too much, Hank. You know how you slur your words and miss your lines whe...

Women: 49

That Tuesday night we were sitting at my place drinking; Tammie, me and her brother, Jay. The phone rang. It was Bobby. “Louie and his wife are down here and she’d like to meet you.” Lo...

about cranes

sometimes after you get your ass kicked real good by the forces you often wish you were a crane standing on one leg in blue water

Women: 18

In the morning Dee Dee drove me to the Sunset Strip for breakfast. The Mercedes was black and shone in the sun. We drove past the billboards and the nightclubs and the fancy restaurants...

A Love Poem

all the women all their kisses the different ways they love and talk and need. their ears they all have

Yes Yes

when God created love he didn’t he… when God created dogs He didn’t h… when God created plants that was a… when God created hate we had a sta… when God created me He created me

Charles Bukowski

the veryest

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Other works by Charles Bukowski...