she’s young, she said,
but look at me,
I have pretty ankles,
and look at my wrists, I have pretty
wrists
o my god,
I thought it was all working,
and now it’s her again,
every time she phones you go crazy,
you told me it was over
you told me it was finished,
listen, I’ve lived long enough to become a
good woman,
why do you need a bad woman?
you need to be tortured, don’t you?
you think life is rotten if somebody treats you
rotten it all fits,
doesn’t it?
tell me, is that it? do you want to be treated like a
piece of shit?
and my son, my son was going to meet you.
I told my son
and I dropped all my lovers.
I stood up in a cafe and screamed
I’M IN LOVE,
and now you’ve made a fool of me. . .
I’m sorry, I said, I’m really sorry.
hold me, she said, will you please hold me?
I’ve never been in one of these things before, I said,
these triangles. . .
she got up and lit a cigarette, she was trembling all
over.she paced up and down,wild and crazy.she had
a small body.her arms were thin,very thin and when
she screamed and started beating me I held her
wrists and then I got it through the eyes:hatred,
centuries deep and true.I was wrong and graceless and
sick.all the things I had learned had been wasted.
there was no creature living as foul as I
and all my poems were
false.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Charles Bukowski's poem I’m In Love

6 Comments

  1. Faith says:

    I heard of this poem through a song by a band called Chiodos. They go well together..
    This poem shouldn’t be so beautiful, but it is.
    I can see it..not the people or places, but the emotions: raw and real.

  2. kristi says:

    love is very important in life and ads i read your poem it touched me u tought me more things than i could imagine it was the best love poem i have ever read thanks for helping about love

  3. Travis Bickle says:

    And I am Buk, my dear flapjack. We sure had some good times together, didn’t we?

  4. flapjack darling says:

    I am the fool in this poem.
    The young girl.

  5. Lamar Cole says:

    Just like the wings of a peacock, real love can be so fascinating.

  6. Daniel says:

    I believe that most people on the earth can’t even come to imagine what real love really is. This is what I say I live for. To show the people I naturally happen to come along..what real love..really is. It gives them a new reason to live..and something to look for..and it’s actually more beautiful than anything else ever came to imagine. Just a long story. Modest Mouse…Isaac speaks of a lover. He doesn’t even really know her. what she really is. He doesn’t know love. I wish to meet him one day. We would have a good…nice talk.

    LO
    VE

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