Burning in Water, Drowning in Flame Pt 4

Section Four:

Burning in Water Drowning in Flame (Poems 1972-1973)

the way

murdered in the alley of the land
frost-bitten against flagpoles
pawned by females
educated in the dark for the dark
vomiting into plugged toilets
in rented rooms full of roaches and mice
no wonder we seldom sing
day noon or night
the useless wars
the useless years
the useless loves
and they ask us,
why do you drink so much?
well, I suppose if the days were made
to be wasted
the years and the loves were made
to be wasted
we can't cry, and it helps to laugh -
it's like letting out
dreams, ideals,
poisons
don't ask us to sing,
laughing and singing to us,
you see, it is a terrible joke
Christ should have laughed on the cross,
it would have petrified his killers
now there are more killers than ever
and I write poems for them.

Now obviously these are just a few of the poems from the book, but they were some of the ones that really stood out to me (some that I wanted to put in were far too long to sit here and type out, and could be found nowhere on the internets to copy and paste). So please. If you liked any of the ones you’ve read over the last few days, do yourself a favor and buy some Bukowski.

 On to reading!