Photo by Katy Brown, Davis
ah. . .
—charles bukowski
drinking German beer
and trying to come up with
the immortal poem at
5 p.m. in the afternoon.
but, ah, I've told the
students that the thing
to do is not to try.
but when the women aren't
around and the horses aren't
running
what else is there to do?
I've had a couple of
sexual fantasies
had lunch out
mailed three letters
been to the grocery store.
nothing on tv.
the telephone is quiet.
I've run dental floss
between my teeth.
it won't rain and I listen
to the early arrivals from the
8 hour day as they
drive in and park their cars
behind the apartment
next door.
I sit drinking German beer
and trying to come up with the
big one
and I'm not going to make it.
I'm just going to keep drinking
more and more German beer
and rolling smokes
and by 11 p.m.
I'll be spread out
on the unmade bed
face up
asleep under the electric
light
still waiting on the immortal
poem.
—charles bukowski
drinking German beer
and trying to come up with
the immortal poem at
5 p.m. in the afternoon.
but, ah, I've told the
students that the thing
to do is not to try.
but when the women aren't
around and the horses aren't
running
what else is there to do?
I've had a couple of
sexual fantasies
had lunch out
mailed three letters
been to the grocery store.
nothing on tv.
the telephone is quiet.
I've run dental floss
between my teeth.
it won't rain and I listen
to the early arrivals from the
8 hour day as they
drive in and park their cars
behind the apartment
next door.
I sit drinking German beer
and trying to come up with the
big one
and I'm not going to make it.
I'm just going to keep drinking
more and more German beer
and rolling smokes
and by 11 p.m.
I'll be spread out
on the unmade bed
face up
asleep under the electric
light
still waiting on the immortal
poem.
______________________
for Al—
—charles bukowski
don't worry about rejections, pard,
I've been rejected
before.
sometimes you make a mistake, taking
the wrong poem
more often I make the mistake, writing
it.
but I like a mount in every race
even though the man
who puts up the morning line
tabs it 30 to one.
I get to thinking about death more and
more
senility
crutches
armchairs
writing purple poetry with a
dripping pen
when the young girls with mouths
like barracudas
bodies like lemon trees
bodies like clouds
bodies like flashes of lightning
stop knocking on my door.
don't worry about rejections, pard.
I have smoked 25 cigarettes tonight
and you know about the beer.
the phone has only rung once:
wrong number.
_____________________
462-0614
—charles bukowski
I get many phonecalls now.
They are all alike.
"are you Charles Bukowski,
the writer?"
"yes," I tell them.
and they tell me
that they understand my
writing,
and some of them are writers
or want to be writers
and they have dull and
horrible jobs
and they can't face the room
the apartment
the walls
that night—
they want somebody to talk
to,
and they can't believe
that I can't help them
that I don't know the words.
they can't believe
that often now
I double up in my room
grab my gut
and say
"Jesus Jesus Jesus, not
again!"
they can't believe
that the loveless people
the streets
the loneliness
the walls
are mine too.
and when I hang up the phone
they think I have held back my
secret.
I don't write out of knowledge.
when the phone rings
I too would like to hear words
that might ease
some of this.
that's why my number's
listed.
_____________________
—Medusa
Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their POETRY, PHOTOS and ART, as well as announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com (or snail ‘em to P.O. Box 762, Pollock Pines, CA 95726) for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets. Previously-published poems are okay for Medusa’s Kitchen, as long as you own the rights. (Please cite publication.)
SnakeWatch: Up-to-the-minute Snake news:
Journals (free publications): Rattlesnake Review #13 is available at The Book Collector; next deadline is May 15. The new VYPER #6 (for youth 13-19) is in The Book Collector; next deadline is Nov. 1. Snakelets 9 (for kids 0-12) is available; Snakelets #10 will be out this month.
Books/broadsides: April’s releases are SnakeRings SpiralChap #7 from D.R. Wagner: Where The Stars Are Kept, and littlesnake broadside #33: Swallowed By This Whale Of Time by Ann Menebroker. Both are now available at The Book Collector. SpiralChaps are $8; broadsides are free. Or contact kathykieth@hotmail.com for ordering information. Rattlesnake Interview Series #1 with Ann Menebroker and B.L. Kennedy is also available (free) at The Book Collector (or contact Kathy Kieth).
Next rattle-read: May's releases will be Ron Tranquilla’s Playing Favorites: Selected Poems, 1971-2006, plus a broadside by Julie Valin and a Rattlesnake Interview Broadside (#2) featuring Khiry Malik Moore and B.L. Kennedy. Come check all these out on May 9 at 7:30 PM at The Book Collector, 1008 24th St., Sacramento. Refreshments and a read-around will follow; bring your own poems or somebody else’s.