Charles Bukowski
ask the sidewalk painters of Paris
ask the sunlight on a sleeping dog
ask the 3 pigs
ask the paperboy
ask the music of Donizetti
ask the barber
ask the murderer
ask the man leaning against a wall
ask the preacher
ask the maker of cabinets
ask the pickpocket or the
     pawnbroker or the glass blower
     or the seller of manure or
     the dentist
ask the revolutionist
ask the man who sticks his head in
     the mouth of a lion
ask the man who will release the next
     atom bomb
ask the man who thinks he’s Christ
ask the bluebird who comes home
     at night
ask the peeping Tom
ask the man dying of cancer
ask the man who needs a bath
ask the man with one leg
ask the blind
ask the man with the lisp
ask the opium eater
ask the trembling surgeon
ask the leaves you walk upon
ask a rapist or a
     streetcar conductor or an old man
     pulling weeds in his garden
ask a bloodsucker
ask a trainer of fleas
ask a man who eats fire
ask the most miserable man you can
     find in his most
     miserable moment
ask a teacher of judo
ask a rider of elephants
ask a leper, a lifer, a lunger
ask a professor of history
ask the man who never cleans his
     fingernails
ask a clown or ask the first face you see
     in the light of day
ask your father
ask your son and
     his son to be ask me
ask a burned-out bulb in a paper sack
ask the tempted, the damned, the foolish
      the wise, the slavering
ask the builders of temples
ask the men who have never worn shoes
ask Jesus
ask the moon
ask the shadows in the closet
ask the moth, the monk, the madman
ask the man who draws cartoons for
The New Yorker
ask a goldfish
ask a fern shaking to a tapdance
ask the map of India
ask a kind face
ask the man hiding under your bed
ask the man you hate the most in this
     world
ask the man who drank with Dylan Thomas
ask the man who laced Jack Sharkey’s gloves
ask the sad-faced man drinking coffee
ask the plumber
ask the man who dreams of ostriches every
     night
ask the ticket-taker at a freak show
ask the counterfeiter
ask the man sleeping in an alley under
a sheet of paper
ask the conquerors of nations and planets
ask the man who has just cut off his finger
ask a bookmark in the bible
ask the water dripping from a faucet while
    the phone rings
ask perjury
ask the deep blue paint
ask the parachute jumper
ask the man with the bellyache
ask the divine eye so sleek and swimming
ask the boy wearing tight pants in
     the expensive academy
ask the man who slipped in the bathtub
ask the man chewed by the shark
ask the one who sold me the unmatched
     gloves
ask these and all those I have left out
ask the fire the fire the fire—
ask even the liars
ask anybody you please at anytime
      you please on any day you please
      whether it’s raining or whether
      the snow is there or whether
      you are stepping out onto a porch
      yellow with warm heat
ask this ask that
ask the man with birdshit in his hair
ask the torturer of animals
ask the man who has seen many bullfights
      in Spain
ask the owners of new Cadillacs ask the famous
ask the timid
ask the albino
    and the statesman
ask the landlords and the poolplayers ask the phonies
ask the hired killers
ask the bald men and the fat men
      and the tall men and the
      short men
ask the one-eyed men, the
      oversexed and undersexed men
ask the men who read all the newspaper
      editorials
ask the men who breed roses
ask the men who feel almost no pain
ask the dying
ask the mowers of lawns and the attenders
      of football games
ask any of these or all of these ask ask ask and
      they’ll all tell you:
a snarling wife on the balustrade is more
than a man can bear.
Other works by Charles Bukowski...



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