His Wife, The Painter
July 5, 2023Confession
July 5, 2023For Jane: With All the Love I Had, Which Was Not Enough:
I pick up the skirt,
I pick up the sparkling beads
in black,
this thing that moved once
around flesh,
and I call God a liar,
I say anything that moved
like that
or knew
my name
could never die
in the common verity of dying,
and I pick
up her lovely
dress,
all her loveliness gone,
and I speak to all the gods,
Jewish gods, Christ-gods,
chips of blinking things,
idols, pills, bread,
fathoms, risks,
knowledgeable surrender,
rats in the gravy of two gone quite mad
without a chance,
hummingbird knowledge, hummingbird chance,
I lean upon this,
I lean on all of this
and I know
her dress upon my arm
but
they will not
give her back to me.
Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) was an American poet and novelist known for his gritty, raw writing style and unflinching portrayals of life on the margins. He wrote numerous volumes of poetry, including "Love is a Dog From Hell" and "The Last Night of the Earth Poems," and his novels, such as "Post Office" and "Women," have become cult classics.