The ​People Look Like Flowers At Last 1 csillagozás

New Poems
Charles Bukowski: The People Look Like Flowers At Last

Vigyázat! Cselekményleírást tartalmaz.

the gas line is leaking, the bird is gone from the
cage, the skyline is dotted with vultures;
Benny finally got off the stuff and Betty now has a job
as a waitress; and
the chimney sweep was quite delicate as he
giggled up through the
soot.
I walked miles through the city and recognized
nothing as a giant claw ate at my
stomach while the inside of my head felt
airy as if I was about to go
mad.
it’s not so much that nothing means
anything but more that it keeps meaning
nothing,
there’s no release, just gurus and self-
appointed gods and hucksters.
the more people say, the less there is to say.
even the best books are dry sawdust.

—from „fingernails; nostrils; shoelaces”

Eredeti megjelenés éve: 2007

>!
Ecco, New York, 2007
300 oldal · keménytáblás · ISBN: 9780060577070
>!
Ecco, New York
ISBN: 9780060577087

Most olvassa 1

Várólistára tette 4

Kívánságlistára tette 1


Népszerű idézetek

szivárványglória>!

whiskey makes the heart beat faster
but it sure doesn’t help the
mind and isn’t it funny how you can ache just
from the deadly drone of
existence?

44. oldal, purple glow (részlet)

szivárványglória>!

and she got up and closed the windows to the south
and said:
that’s what’s killing you
those gas fumes coming up from the avenue
that
and the drinking. at least we can get you
away from the gas fumes.

106. oldal, that nice girl who came in to change the sheets (részlet)

>!

fulfillment

she disciplined herself in
anger
hatred and cunning
strategy.

I always thought that it would
finally pass
that she was giddy with
misconception and bad
advice.

I always felt it would
pass.

I listened to the charges against me
knowing some of them to be true
but certainly not
important enough
to become the target of
violence, envy,
vengeance.

I thought it would surely
pass.

I commandeered no
defense
thinking that easy
reason
would save us
both

but her determination
strengthened—
even then
I summed it up as headstrong, over
zealous
energy

but the moment I gave ground
more ground was
taken.

lord, I thought, it’s just simple
violence

and so I trotted my horse
out of the stable
sharpened my knives and
began a
counterattack.

she’d finally found
as good an opponent as could be
found.

her determination demanded her own
destruction.

she’d found her
match
I mounted my steed
sword ready
ready even for the sun.

she’d always wanted war
I’d grant her wish
love be damned now
as love was damned when it
first arrived.

my reluctance would
now be gone
forever

and the blood
would flow

hers and mine

just as she desired.

132-134. oldal

szivárványglória >!

a plausible finish

there ought to be a place to go
when you can’t sleep
or you’re tired of getting drunk
and the grass doesn’t work anymore,
and I don’t mean to go
to hash or cocaine,
I mean a place to go to besides
the death that’s waiting
or to a love that doesn’t work
anymore.

there ought to be a place to go
when you can’t sleep
besides to a tv set or to a movie
or to buy a newspaper
or to read a novel.

it’s not having that place to go to
that creates the people now in madhouses
and the suicides.

I suppose what most people do
when there isn’t any place to go
is to go to some place or to something
that hardly satisfies them,
and this ritual tends to sandpaper them
down to where they can somehow continue even
without hope.

those faces you see every day on the streets
were not created
entirely without
hope: be kind to them:
like you
they have not
escaped.

200-201. oldal

szivárványglória>!

dogs and angels are not
very far apart.

8. oldal, near a plate glass window (részlet)

szivárványglória >!

perfect white teeth

I finally bought a color tv
and the other night
I hit on this movie
and here’s a guy in
Paris
he has no money
but he wears a very good suit
and his necktie is knotted perfectly
and he’s neither worried nor drunk
but he’s in a café
and all the beautiful women are
in love with him
and somehow he keeps paying his rent
and walking up and down staircases
in very clean shirts
and he advises a few of the girls
that while they can’t write poetry
he can
but he doesn’t really feel like it
at the moment—
he’s looking for Truth instead.
meanwhile he has a perfect haircut
no hangover
no nervous tics around the eyes and perfect
white teeth.

I knew what would happen:
he’d get the poetry, the women and
the Truth.

I popped off the tv set
thinking, you dumb-ass son-of-a-bitch
you deserve
all
three.

188-189. oldal


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