DRINKING COFFEE WITH BUCKOWSKI

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I've been in a strange mood.

At the bookstore, while drinking coffee,

Instead of sitting with a friend like Mary Oliver

To remind me of nature, beauty, 

the goodness in this world, 

I sat with Charles, 

a guy I don't even like.

He drinks too much, smokes stinky cigars, 

Objectifies the nakedness of women,

Glorifies his drunkenness,

Exposes himself,

Lets everyone see 

His brokenness.

He drank a little coffee, 

but preferred hits from his flask. 

"Don't be so naive," He exclaimed.

"Every night is New Year's Eve.

Every body's drunk.

The world is going crazy, 

The bad could inherit its evil.

Goodness could go blind.

Look around, don't fool yourself kid."

I had no response

For the words he spewed

Through his cynical smile.

I judged him, despised him,

I closed the book on him.

But later, I heard his words

Translated through the filters

Of my mind.

"Ugliness and darkness

Can't help but be ugly and dark.

Their door has been opened,

They are no longer hiding.

Instead, they're exploring

Barren lands.

Let them shock you sober.

Then open your own door wide."

(Charles Bukowski - Wikipedia

His writing was influenced by the social, cultural, and economic ambience of his home city of Los Angeles.^[4] His work addresses the ordinary lives of poor Americans, the act of writing, alcohol, relationships with women, and the drudgery of work.. The FBIkept a file on him as a result of his column, Notes of a Dirty Old Man, in the LA underground newspaper Open City.^[5][6]

In 1986 Time called Bukowski a "laureate of American lowlife".^[7] )

For Poets United.