Come on In!

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Come on In! Page 8

by Charles Bukowski


  I forgive the first woman who held my psyche

  in her fingertips when

  I was sold into captivity

  long ago.

  it’s a lonely world

  of frightened people.

  a note upon modern poesy

  poetry has come a long way, though very slowly;

  you aren’t as old as I am

  and I can remember reading

  magazines where at the end of a poem

  it said:

  Paris, 1928.

  that seemed to make a

  difference, and so, those who could afford to

  (and some who couldn’t)

  went to

  PARIS

  and wrote.

  I am also old enough so that I remember when poems

  made many references to the Greek and Roman

  gods.

  if you didn’t know your gods you weren’t a very good

  writer.

  also, if you couldn’t slip in a line of

  Spanish, French or

  Italian,

  you certainly weren’t a very good

  writer.

  5 or 6 decades ago,

  maybe 7,

  some poets started using

  “i” for “I”

  or

  “&” for “and.”

  many still use a small

  “i” and many more continue to use the

  “&”

  feeling that this is

  poetically quite effective and

  up-to-date.

  also, the oldest notion still in vogue is

  that if you can’t understand a poem then

  it almost certainly is a

  good one.

  poetry is still moving slowly forward, I guess,

  and when your average garage mechanics

  start bringing books of poesy to read

  on their lunch breaks

  then we’ll know for sure we’re moving in

  the right

  direction.

  &

  of this

  i

  am sure.

  the end of an era

  he lived in the Village

  in New York

  in the old days

  and only after he died

  did he get a write-up

  in a snob magazine,

  a magazine which had

  never printed his

  poems.

  he came from the days

  when poets called

  themselves

  Bohemians.

  he wore a beret and a

  scarf

  and hung around the

  cafés,

  bummed drinks,

  sometimes got a

  night’s lodging from the

  rich

  (just for

  laughs)

  but mostly

  he slept in the alleys

  at night.

  the whores knew him

  well

  and gave him

  little

  hand-outs.

  he was a communist

  or a

  socialist

  depending upon what

  he was

  reading

  at that

  moment.

  it was 1939

  and he had a

  burning hatred

  in his heart

  for the

  Nazis.

  when he

  recited his poems

  in the street

  he always

  ended up

  frothing about the

  Nazis.

  he passed out

  little stapled

  pages

  of his

  poems

  and

  he wrote

  with a

  simple

  intensity.

  he was good

  but not

  great.

  and even the good poems

  were not

  that

  good.

  anyhow

  he was an

  attraction;

  the tourists always

  asked for

  him.

  he was always

  in love

  with some

  new whore.

  he had a

  real

  soul

  and the usual

  real

  needs.

  he stank

  and wore cast-off clothes

  and he screamed

  when he spoke

  but

  at least

  he wasn’t anybody

  but

  himself.

  the Village was

  his

  Paris.

  but unlike

  Henry Miller

  who made

  failure

  glorious

  and finally

  lucrative

  he didn’t know

  quite how

  to accomplish

  that.

  instead of being

  a

  genius-freak

  he was just

  a

  freak-freak.

  but most of

  the writers and

  painters

  who also had failed

  loved him

  because he

  symbolized

  for them

  the possibility

  of being

  recognized.

  they too wore

  scarves and

  berets

  and did more

  complaining than

  creating.

  but then they

  lost him.

  he was found

  one morning

  in an

  alley

  wrapped around

  his latest

  whore.

  both of them

  had their

  throats

  cut

  wide.

  and

  on the wall

  above them

  in their

  blood

  were scrawled

  the words:

  “COMMIE PIG!”

  another freak

  had found

  him?

  a

  freak- Nazi?

  or maybe

  just a

  freak-freak?

  but his

  murder

  finally created

  the fame

  he had always

  wanted,

  though it was

  to be but

  temporary.

  he was to

  have a

  final

  fling

  in this

  his

  crazy

  life and

  death.

  he had left

  an envelope

  with a prominent

  Matron of the

  Arts,

  marked:

  TO BE OPENED

  ONLY IN THE EVENT

  OF

  MY DEATH.

  all during his

  stay in the

  Village

  he had spoken

  about a mysterious

  WORK IN

  PROGRESS.

  he had claimed

  he’d written a

  GIGANTIC WORK,

  more pages than

  a couple of

  telephone

  books.

  it would

  dwarf Pound’s

  Cantos

  and put a

  headlock

  on the

  Bible.

  the instructions

  were

  specific:

  the WORK was

  in an iron

  chest

&
nbsp; buried

  in a graveyard

  30 yards

  south and west

  of a certain tree

  (indicated on a

  hand-drawn

  map)

  the tree

  where he claimed

  Whitman once

  rested

  while he wrote

  “I Celebrate Myself.”

  the ground

  all about was

  soon

  dug up and

  searched.

  nothing was

  found.

  some Romantics

  claimed it was

  still

  there

  somewhere.

  Realists

  claimed it never had

  been there.

  maybe the

  Nazis

  got there

  first?

  at any rate

  it was

  shortly after

  that

  that

  almost all the

  poets

  in the

  Village

  and most poets

  living

  elsewhere

  stopped

  wearing

  scarves and

  berets

  and reluctantly

  went off to

  war.

  Paris in the spring

  if death was staring you in the face,

  he was asked, what would you say to your readers?

  nothing, he told the interviewer, would you please

  order another bottle of wine?

  he was an old, tired writer from Los Angeles, hungover,

  and his French publisher had pushed one more

  interview on him.

  the free dinners and drinks usually

  were great

  but now he was fed up.

  the many recent interviews had become

  frustrating and boring.

  he figured either his books would sell on their own

  or fail the same way.

  he hadn’t written them for money anyhow but to keep

  himself out of the madhouse.

  he tried to tell the interviewers this but they just went on with

  their usual

  banal questions:

  have you met Norman Mailer?

  what do you think of Camus, Sartre, Céline?

  do your books sell better here than in America?

  did you really work in a slaughterhouse?

  do you think Hemingway was homosexual?

  do you take drugs?

  do you drink when you write?

  are you a misanthrope?

  who is your favorite writer?

  the interviewer ordered another bottle of wine.

  it was 11:15 p.m. on the patio of a hotel.

  there were little white tables and chairs scattered about.

  theirs was the only one occupied.

  there was the interviewer, a photographer,

  the writer and his wife.

  have you had sex with children? the interviewer

  asked.

  no, answered the writer.

  in one of your stories a man has sex with a

  child and you describe it very

  graphically.

  well? asked the writer.

  it was as if you enjoyed it, the interviewer said.

  I sometimes enjoy writing, the writer said.

  you seemed to have experienced what you were describing,

  said the interviewer.

  I only photograph life, said the writer. I might write

  about a murderer but this doesn’t mean that I am

  one or would enjoy being one.

  ah, here’s the wine, said the interviewer.

  the waiter took out the cork, poured a bit for

  him.

  the interviewer took a taste, nodded to the

  waiter

  and the waiter poured all

  around.

  the wine goes fast when there’s four of us, said the

  writer.

  do you drink because you are afraid of life?

  the interviewer asked.

  disgusted with life is more like it, said the writer, and with

  you.

  we were up very early, said the writer’s wife.

  he’s given at least a dozen interviews over the past

  3 days and he’s tired.

  I am from one of the city’s most important newspapers,

  said the interviewer.

  fuck you, said the writer.

  what? said the interviewer. you can’t talk to me

  like that!

  I am, said the writer.

  all you American writers think you’re God, said the

  interviewer.

  God is dead, said the writer, remember?

  this interview is over! said the interviewer.

  the photographer quickly drank his wine,

  then he and the interviewer stood up

  and walked out.

  you better get yourself together, said the wife

  to the writer, you’re on television tomorrow

  night.

  I’ll tell them to kiss my ass, said the writer.

  you can’t do that, said his wife.

  baby, said the writer, lifting his

  wineglass, watch me!

  you’re just a drunk who writes, said his wife.

  that’s better than a drunk who just drinks,

  said the writer.

  his wife sighed.

  well, do you want to go back to the room or to another

  café?

  to another café, said the writer.

  they rose and walked slowly out of the

  restaurant, he looking through his pocket for

  cigarettes, she looking back over her shoulder

  as if something was following

  them.

  alone in this chair

  hell, hell, in hell,

  trapped like a fish to bake

  here and burn.

  hell, hell, inside my brain

  inside my gut,

  hell hanging

  twisting

  screaming

  churning

  then crouching still

  both inside

  and outside of

  me.

  hell,

  hell in the trees,

  on the ground,

  crawling on the rug.

  hell,

  bouncing off

  the

  walls and

  ceiling as

  I sit in this chair here

  as outside

  through the window

  I watch

  6 or 7 telephone wires

  taut against the

  sky

  as fresh hell slides

  toward me

  along the wires.

  hell is where I

  am.

  and I am

  here.

  there isn’t any

  place

  else.

  see me now

  reaching for a

  cigarette,

  my hand pushing

  through boiling space.

  there is nothing more

  I can do.

  I light the

  cigarette,

  lean back here

  alone

  in

  this

  chair.

  talking about the poets

  “correctly so,” I told him,

  “I would much rather they all

  robbed banks or sold

  drugs and if you please may

  I have a vodka-7?”

  “I agree,” said the

  barkeep mi
xing the

  drink, “I’d rather they

  collected garbage

  or ran for Congress

  or taught

  biology.”

  “or,” I said, reaching

  for the drink, “sold

  flowers on the corner

  or gave back rubs or

  tried blowing glass.”

  “absolutely right,” said

  the barkeep

  pouring himself a

  drink, “I’d rather they

  plowed the good

  earth or

  delivered the mail.”

  “or,” I said, “mugged

  old ladies or

  pulled teeth.”

  “or directed traffic or

  worked the factories,”

  said the barkeep, “or

  caught the bus to

  the nearest harvest.”

  “that will be a great day,” I said,

  “when it arrives.”

  “beautiful,” said the

  barkeep, “but isn’t it the

  mediocrity of the masses

  which diminishes the

  wealth of its entertainers

  and artists?”

  “absolutely not,” I said, “and may I

  have another vodka- 7?”

  “if I was the policeman

  of the world,” the barkeep

  continued, moving the drink

  toward me, “many a darling

  poet would either be allowed to

  starve or forced to get a

  real job.”

  “and correctly so,” I

  said, raising my

  drink.

  “that will be a beautiful day,”

  said the barkeep,

  “when it arrives.”

  “a hell of a beautiful

  day,” I agreed.

  was Li Po wrong?

  you know what Li Po said when asked if he’d rather be an

 

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