The Night I Was Going To Die

Portrait of Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski 1920–1994

the night I was going to die I was sweating on the bed and I could hear the crickets and there was a cat fight outside and I could feel my soul dropping down through the mattress and just before it hit the floor I jumped up I was almost too weak to walk but I walked around and turned on all the lights and then I went back to bed and dropped it down again and I was up turning on all the lights I had a 7-year-old daughter and I felt sure she wouldn't want me dead otherwise it wouldn't have mattered but all that night nobody phoned nobody came by with a beer my girlfriend didn't phone all I could hear were the crickets and it was hot and I kept working at it getting up and down until the first of the sun came through the window through the bushes and then I got on the bed and the soul stayed inside at last and I slept. now people come by beating on the doors and windows the phone rings the phone rings again and again I get great letters in the mail hate letters and love letters. everything is the same again.

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  1. me me United States

    your poem was very cute but you need to put a little action in it to make it better.if you are a poetry you need to keep it up and make it big for yourself.

  2. Ben Australia

    Your kidding me me, giving pointers to one of the greatest modern poets or do I mean to say modern poetry.
    You Fool!

  3. Katra United States

    what does it matter really? the man's dead.

    altho I do agree with Ben.

  4. Mark United States

    I can't help but wonder if me me has any advise for homer on writing an epic, or maybe for Shakespear on penning a worthwhile play?

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