YOUNG IN NEW ORLEANS

starving there, sitting around the bars,
and at night walking the streets for
hours,
the moonlight always seemed fake
to me, maybe it was,
and in the French Quarter I watched
the horses and buggies going by,
everybody sitting high in the open
carriages, the black driver, and in
back the man and the woman,
usually young and always white.
and I was always white.
and hardly charmed by the
world.
New Orleans was a place to
hide.
I could piss away my life,
unmolested.
except for the rats.
the rats in my dark small room
very much resented sharing it
with me.
they were large and fearless
and stared at me with eyes
that spoke
an unblinking
death.

women were beyond me.
they saw something
depraved.
there was one waitress
a little older than
I, she rather smiled,
lingered when she
brought my
coffee.

that was plenty for
me, that was
enough.

there was something about
that city, though
it didn't let me feel guilty
that I had no feeling for the
things so many others
needed.
it let me alone.

sitting up in my bed
the llights out,
hearing the outside
sounds,
lifting my cheap
bottle of wine,
letting the warmth of
the grape
enter
me
as I heard the rats
moving about the
room,
I preferred them
to
humans.

being lost,
being crazy maybe
is not so bad
if you can be
that way
undisturbed.

New Orleans gave me
that.
nobody ever called
my name.

no telephone,
no car,
no job,
no
anything.

me and the
rats
and my youth,
one time,
that time
I knew
even through the
nothingness,
it was a
celebration
of something not to
do
but only
know.


"Young in New Orleans" Copyright 1982 by Charles Bukowski. Reprinted from The Last night on Earth Poems with the permission of Black Sparrow Press.

good nights all

Hello bed. Hello warm bed. Hello warm bed with warm wife. Goodnight!

middigit said...lol mick, are you smoking something dear

not a bit, middi.

that was a song lyric i'm working on. it's got a lovely sweet melody going, and i'm happier with it than i was last week. you just got the latest "build".

GearedUp, you and i are in the same time zone; we are chronosyncy companionistas. or something...... heh

/me shakes baby milk

nytol

It's goodnight from me now

nos da!

Not long now...

I'm clinging on...

I'm working on a bit of a business plan... tell you about it tomorrow

nicko said...I'm working on a bit of a business plan... tell you about it tomorrow

cool beans!

g'night michael

Goodly night fellow human beings

damn. i'm not even out of work yet!

g'night all y'alls!

anyone still left to tuck me in!?

~pours some warm water over flash' undies

~giggles like sock a young welsh girl

Ve. said...consider yourself tucked, silly.

yay!

CPU said...~pours some warm water over flash' undies

~giggles like sock a young welsh girl

boo! at least you didn't put shaving cream in my hand and tickle my nose! although, i do love that trick!

^what he said^

night

gnight all

goooooood niiiiiiiiiigggght!

...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....zzzzzzzzzz(cough)zzzzzzzzzzzz......prrrp........zzzzzzzzzzz

nicko said.../me shakes baby milk

nytol

Thanks for bringing the icons back... ~hugs ~is asleep instantly...

why am i still up?? goodnight!

oh man, midnight - this is far too late for me, i'm going to be struggling tomorrow. gnight y'alls.