Poeticous Logo
en
English Español Français Italiano
Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

the loner

16 and one-half inch
neck
68 years old
lifts weights
body like a young
boy (almost)
 
kept his head
shaved
and drank port wine
from half-gallon jugs
 
kept the chain on the
door
windows boarded
 
you had to give
special knock
to get in
 
he had brass knucks
knives
clubs
guns
 
he had a chest like a
wrestler
never lost his
glasses
 
never swore
never looked for
trouble
 
never married after the death
of his only
wife
 
hated
cats
roaches
mice
humans
 
worked crossword
puzzles
kept up with the
news
 
that 16 and one-half inch
neck
 
for 68 he was
something
 
all those boards
across the windows
 
washed his own underwear
and socks
 
my friend Red took me up
to meet him
one night
 
we talked a while
together
then we left
 
Red asked, “what do you
think?”
 
answered, “more afraid to die
than the rest of us.”
 
haven’t seen either of them
since.

#Americans #XXCentury #1993 #ThePleasuresOfTheDamned

Enjoyed this read? Treat us to a coffee!.
Your help allows us to exist.
Other works by Charles Bukowski...
Ham on Rye: 46

Times were still hard. Nobody was any more surprised than I when Mears– Starbuck phoned and asked me to report to work the next Monday. I had gone all around town putting in dozens of a...
Bee’s 5th

I heard it first while screwing a… who had the biggest box in Scranton. I listened to it again as I wrote… to my mother
Women: 26

I sat in the airport and waited. You never knew about photos. You could never tell. I was nervous. I felt like vomiting. I lit a cigarette and gagged. Why did I do these things? I didn’...
Women: 44

I had been sleeping on a terrible mattress with the springs sticking into me for several years. That afternoon when I awakened I pulled the mattress off the bed, dragged it outside, and...
Women: 77

A month went by. R.A. Dwight, the editor of Dogbite Press wrote and asked me to do a foreword to Keesing’s Selected Poems. Keesing, with the help of his death, was at last going to get ...
so now?

the words have come and gone, I sit ill. the phone rings, the cats sleep. Linda vacuums. I am waiting to live,
 7
pacific telephone

you go for these wenches, she said… you go for these whores, I’ll bore you. I don’t want to be shit on anymore… I said,
Post Office. Chapter IV: 6

The next day we picked up some of her stuff at this motel. There was a little dark guy in there with a wart on the side of his nose. He looked dangerous. Hector was sitting on the edge ...
on being 20

my mother knocked on my rooming-ho… and came in looked in the dresser drawer: Henry you don’t have any clean stockings?
Paris

never even in calmer times have I ever dreamed of bicycling through that
 1
the pile-up

the 3 horse clipped the heels of the 7, they both went down and the 9 stumbled over them, jocks rolling, horses’ legs flung skyward.
the beautiful young girl walking past the graveyard—

I stop my car at the signal I see her walking past the graveya… as she walks past the iron fence I can see through the iron fence and I see the headstones
on going out to get the mail

the droll noon where squadrons of worms creep up like stripteasers to be raped by blackbirds. I go outside
Women: 68

It was a Wednesday night, 12:30 am and I was very sick. My stomach was raw, but I managed to hold down a few beers. Tammie was with me and she seemed sympathetic. Dancy was at her grand...
Ham on Rye: 27

Wagner wasn’t done with us. I was standing in the yard during gym class when he walked up to me. “I’m putting you on garbage detail until further notice.” The kids had to work off their...



Top