if you live in a closet with rats and
eat dry bread
they like you.
you’re a genius then.

or if you’re in the madhouse or
the drunktank
they call you a genius.

or if you’re drunk and shouting
obscenities and
vomiting your life-guts on
the floor
you’re a genius.

but get the rent paid up a month
in advance
put on a new pair of stockings
go to the dentist
make love to a healthy clean girl
instead of a whore
and you’ve lost your
soul.

I’m not interested enough to ask about
their souls.
I suppose I
should.

Charles Bukowski (excerpt from the poem ‘Soul’)

Vertigo by: Anne Stevenson

Mind led body
to the edge of the precipice.
They stared in desire
at the naked abyss.
If you love me, said mind,
take that step into silence.
If you love me, said body,
turn and exist.

Be Kind

we are always asked
to understand the other person’s
viewpoint
no matter how
out-dated
foolish or
obnoxious.

one is asked
to view
their total error
their life-waste
with
kindliness,
especially if they are
aged.

but age is the total of
our doing.
they have aged
badly
because they have
lived
out of focus,
they have refused to
see.

not their fault?

whose fault?
mine?

I am asked to hide
my viewpoint
from them
for fear of their
fear.

age is no crime

but the shame
of a deliberately
wasted
life

among so many
deliberately
wasted
lives

is.

-Charles Bukowski