abracadabra!: CHARLES BUKOWSKI

maio 10, 2007

CHARLES BUKOWSKI

question and answer

he sat naked and drunk in a room of summer
night, running the blade of the knife
under his fingernails, smiling, thinking
of all the letters he had received
telling him that
the way he lived and wrote about
that--
it had kept them going when
all seemed
truly
hopeless.

putting the blade on the table, he
flicked it with a finger
and it whirled
in a flashing circle
under the light.

who the hell is going to save
me? he
thought.

as the knife stopped spinning
the answer came:
you're going to have to
save yourself.

still smiling,
a: he lit a
cigarette
b: he poured
another
drink
c: gave the blade
another
spin.

Charles Bukowski

Bukowski nasceu em Andernach (Alemanha) em 1920, como Heinrich Karl Bukowski. Filho de alemã e de um soldado americano, a família mudou-se para Los Angeles quando Bukowski tinha dois anos de idade. É em Los Angeles que faz os seus estudos primários e é graduado pelo Los Angeles High School. Após o Liceu, Bukowski continua estudos no Los Angeles City College onde, durante dois anos, frequenta cursos de arte, jornalismo e literatura.
O Poeta, também contista e romancista, faleceu em Los Angeles em Março de 1994, depois de ter escrito mais de 50 livros e milhares de publicações baratas e de ter «corrido mundo» a ler os seus poemas que escandalizaram assembleias de simples, de snobs, de académicos e outros intelectuais. Na sua campa, deixou-nos um aviso: «Don't Try!»

short order

I took my girlfriend to your last poetry reading,
she said.
yes, yes? I asked.
she's young and pretty, she said.
and? I asked.
she hated your
guts.
then she stretched out on the couch
and pulled off her
boots.

I don't have very good legs,
she said.

all right, I thought, I don't have very good
poetry; she doesn't have very good
legs.

scramble two.