charles bukowski - GBV [PDF]

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THE D POEMS, 1951-1993

charles bukowski edited by John martin

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPufa/is/iers

contents

the mockingbird l something's knocking at the door 2 his wife, the painter 4 on the sidewalk and in the sun 6 the elephants of Vietnam 8 dark night poem 9 the last days of the suicide kid 10 tabby cat 13 metamorphosis 14 a poem is a city 15 a smile to remember 17 a free 25-page booklet 18 they, all of them, know 21 a future congressman 26 :• eulogy 28 the drowning 31 * fooling Marie (the poem) 33 1 the young man on the bus stop bench 36 Lfor they had things to say 39 |silly damned thing, anyhow 40

upon reading an interview with a best-selling novelist in our metropolitan daily newspaper 42 harbor freeway south 43 schoolyards of forever 46 in the lobby 50 sex 52 a clean, well-lighted place 53 something for the touts, the nuns, the grocery clerks and you . . . 56 blue beads and bones 62 like a cherry seed in the throat 64 turnabout 65 mystery leg 67 the girl outside the supermarket 74 it is not much 75 2 Outside, As Bones Break in My Kitchen 77 The Japanese Wife 78 the harder you try 80 the lady in red 81 the shower 82 i was glad 84 the angel who pushed his wheelchair 86 a time to remember 89 the wrong way 90 no wonder 92 a threat to my immortality 94 my telephone 96 Carson McCullers 98 Mongolian coasts shining in light 99 putrefaction 100 where was Jane? 102 something about a woman 105

Sunday lunch at the Holy Mission 107 trashcan lives 108 schooldays n o grass 112 crucifix in a deathhand 113 the screw-game 115 millionaires 117 when you wait for the dawn to crawl through the screen like a burglar to take your life away 118 the talkers 120 art 121 advice for some young man in the year 2064 A.D. 122 ice for the eagles 123 girl in a miniskirt reading the Bible outside my window 124 hell is a lonely place 126 the girls and the birds 129 1813-1883 131 no leaders, please 132 song 133 one for Sherwood Anderson 136 bow wow love 137 the day the epileptic spoke 139 when Hugo Wolf went mad— 141 in a neighborhood of murder 142 the strangest sight you ever did see— 143 the 2nd novel 146 junk 148 Mademoiselle from Armentieres 15O now 153 society should realize . . . 155 the souls of dead animals 157 the tragedy of the leaves 159

the birds 160 the loner 162 The Genius of the Crowd 165 / German bar 168 the snow of Italy 169 for Jane: with all the love I had, which was not enough: 171 notice 173 for Jane 174 eulogy to a hell of a dame 175 barfly 177 was Li Po wrong? 178 the night I saw George Raft in Vegas 180 I am eaten by butterflies 182 the veryest 184 man mowing the lawn across the way from me 186 oh, yes 188 poop 189 Phillipe's 1950 194 downtown 195 elephants in the zoo 197 girl on the escalator 198 the shit shits 201 big time loser 204 commerce 206 come on in! 210 the bakers of 1935 211 secret laughter 215 Democracy 216 an empire of coins 217 what? 221 the American Flag Shirt 222 now she's free 223

the simple truth 224 gold in your eye 226 a great writer 228 the smoking car 230 the shoelace 232 self-inflicted wounds 235 Verdi 237 the young lady who lives in Canoga Park 240 life of the king 243 my failure 245 a boy and his dog 247 liberated woman and liberated man 250 small talk 252 the crunch 254 funhouse 258 the poetry reading 259 somebody 261 the colored birds 263 poem for personnel managers: 265 my fate 270 my atomic stockpile 271 Bruckner (2) 272 hello, how are you? 274 vacancy 275 batting slump 277 bang bang 279 the pleasures of the damned 281 one more good one 282 the little girls hissed 285 ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha 288 thoughts from a stone bench in Venice 289 scene in a tent outside the cotton fields of Bakersfield: 291

3:16 and one half . . . "295 a literary discussion 297 butterflies 300 the great escape 302 my friend William 304 safe 306 starve, go mad, or kill yourself 308 the beautiful lady 3io my life as a sitcom 311 who needs it? 313 riots 314 those marvelous lunches 315 The Look: 321 the big one 322 the genius 323 about the PEN conference 327 what a man I was 328 Scarlet 332 like a flower in the rain 334 a killer 336 prayer in bad weather 337 melancholia 340 eat your heart out 342 I made a mistake 344 she comes from somewhere 345 The High-Rise of the New World 346 car wash 348 Van Gogh 349 the railroad yard 351 the girls at the green hotel 352 in other words 354

Destroying Beauty 356 peace 357 afternoons into night 359 we ain't got no money, honey, but we got rain 361 marina: 372 Trollius and trellises 373 beagle 378 coffee and babies 379 magical mystery tour 381 the last generation 383 about competition 387 a radio with guts 388 the egg 390 a killer gets ready 392 in the center of the action 394 poetry 395 notes upon the flaxen aspect: 396 the fisherman 398 the 1930s 399 the burning of the dream 401 sit and endure 410 Goldfish 411 finish 412 dreaming 415 my special craving 416 A Love Poem 418 one writer's funeral 421 the wine of forever 423 the pile-up 425 my big night on the town 426 close encounters of another kind 429

drying out 431

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scene from 1940: 433 the area of pause 434 I know you 436 relentless as the tarantula 438 the replacements 440 to lean back into it 441 eating my senior citizen's dinner at the Sizzler 443 it's strange 447 The Beast 448 woman on the street 450 lost in San Pedro 451 Manx 453 the history of a tough motherfucker 455 bad fix 458 one for the old boy 460 my cats 462 Death Wants More Death 464 the lisp 466 on being 20 468 meanwhile 470 the world's greatest loser 471 v human nature 473 the trash men 476 a gold pocket watch 478 talking to my mailbox... 479 I liked him 481 one for the shoeshine man 482 the proud thin dying 485 shot of red-eye 486 about pain 491

hot 492 who in the'hell is Tom Jones? 495 the price 497 I'm in love 499 the girls 501 the ladies of summer 502 tonight 503 shoes 504 hug the dark 505 face of a political candidate on a street billboard 507 white dog 508 on going out to get the mail 509 spring swan 511 how is your heart? 512 closing time 514 racetrack parking lot at the end of the day 516 there 519 Dinosauria, we 52O mind and heart 523 TB 525 crime does pay 527 the orderly 529 the nurses 531 cancer 533 first poem back 534 tired in the afterdusk 535 again 536 so now? 537 blue 538 a summation 539 sun coming down 540

twilight musings 542 my last winter 543 like a dolphin 544 the bluebird 545 if we take— 547 alphabetical index of poem titles 549