Charles Bukowski, “As the Sparrow”
sharingpoetry:
To give life you must take life,
and as our grief falls flat and hollow
upon the billion-blooded sea
I pass upon serious inward-breaking shoals rimmed
with white-legged, white-bellied rotting creatures
lengthily dead and rioting against surrounding scenes.
Dear child, I only did to you what the sparrow
did to you; I am old when it is fashionable to be
young; I cry when it is fashionable to laugh.
I hated you when it would have taken less courage
to love.
(submitted by justanotherayesha)
0.0833333333
low rumble of
the old man next store,
RUM BUM BUM BUM BUM
I happen to recognize
my feet- these heroes,
and I sit criss cross
to thank them,
the elite.
they were there,
when i was firmly planted
through Irene,
(all wet, lots of hot air,
but it got me out of
work for a little bit-
we had a hurricane party,
and i stripped on a rooftop
in allentown and screamed
out poetry
to freight trains)
Kickers, steppers,
flip flop flickers- dancing
like light
through shudders,
and Bethelehem nights,
and the four mile run
on all that borrowed
freedom,
that’s when the trumpet
sounded the alarm, hard-
and we were all odd inches
from the spiral down.
these feet.
left and right, unafraid,
unscathed and elastic,
they beat the box sharks
and every other sort of cubicle,
they outlasted pair after pair
in maniac dashes
ergo air go’s,
lay up jumps,
on tippy toes.
CHITTY BANG
This old man
wont quit
with this old
conversion van-
it’s running on
its last leg,
BANG BANG
so I stand again,
ahead, i see him go-
to where he sits alone,
to smoke
and doze,
the world war in black
and white plays one more time
through the night-
it’s the dancing light
that springs my achey
anxious feet to life.
i creep on behind
curtains,
and see his strays
unfed,
i know this cause
they line up
outside my freakin door
instead.
The Dignified
Earth:
Telling me burns are kisses,
boo-boo’s gently to unfold,
believing in the deep sea diving helmet,
even while knowing
the milky pressure stains
are hiding under layers
Victim Units:
This is
the fantasy calling
your child’s argonaut shield,
radiant in the metal of Athena-
with real heart,
saved despite all interrogations
by da pope man’s towering-talking-
over.
that poppy cock lays shrinkin’
in the shadow of your dignity, mad-
Man cries out to the forces of
God, perplexed and biting down
hard.
Fail - Safe:
Earth Mother,
Father to
be ultimately consumed in
the fires of
the sun,
she nimbly jumps in confirmation,
expidited - but with such
careful grace,
no doubt.
Reshapes all of man’s
creations, a natural
Demi universe in gentle
step with love.
Yeah, heating me on
the edge of absolute darkness,
keeping out the chills,
resolute, ages away
right behind me
as I grow.
she’s smiles,
and rightly so.
walking over monocacy stone
into whence the echo
children had come from
i walk back through
again in search of earth’s
hollow song
spring still stalls
and flowers excite to
purest bloom anyway,
the orchids tremble in
a winter’s poetry of
rain and final gasping
the poem is of the glorious
huricanes on a single page,
between here and now
blank.
its the fifth beat
i wonder if a dream is only
present in the aftermath of
awakening,
the photographer
seperate through
glass and time
its importance to identify
the colorful exuberance
of her inner thigh,
set white
versus black, in conrast to
an overcast horizon.
the hunted thrill
is still a vitality.
drafted(
gre-ss/t
ive re
mem re
(slap an
finger snip
and kicked
old quarter
bars)
flooded bed-
(pillows talk
minor lunar re
son - less bull)
room
with hanging words
cleft
voices of
over
bearing
we.
re right
ends with le
ft. the lover greens
wilting
salad naked words
to avatars,
blog
point
redacted,
subnotation;
in that ult-
(int.)imate
gross/uneven
net worked
worth
( reg ) is t er
( r ) ( e )d i( t )
)id
