Free The Last Night of the Earth Poems by Charles Bukowski Page A

hate their mirrors
    overtime in hell
    lunch with sick salad
 
    you know and I know and thee know
 
    the end as we know it now
    it seems such a lousy trick after the lousy agony but
 
    you know and I know and thee know
 
    the joy that sometimes comes along out of nowhere
    rising like a falcon moon across the impossibility
 
    you know and I know and thee know
 
    the cross-eyed craziness of total elation
    we know that we finally have not been cheated
    you know and I know and thee know
 
    as we look at our hands our feet our lives our way
    the sleeping hummingbird
    the murdered dead of armies
    the sun that eats you as you face it
 
    you know and I know and thee know
 
    we will defeat death.

show biz
     
     
    I can’t have it
    and you can’t have it
    and we won’t
    get it
 
    so don’t bet on it
    or even think about
    it
 
    just get out of bed
    each morning
 
    wash
    shave
    clothe
    yourself
    and go out into
    it
 
    because
    outside of that
    all that’s left is
    suicide and
    madness
 
    so you just
    can’t
    expect too much
 
    you can’t even
    expect
 
    so what you do
    is
    work from a modest
    minimal
    base
    like when you
    walk outside
    be glad your car
    might possibly
    be there
 
    and if it is—
    that the tires
    aren’t
    flat
 
    then you get
    in
    and if it
    starts—you
    start.
 
    and
    it’s the damndest
    movie
    you’ve ever
    seen
    because
    you’re
    in it—
 
    low budget
    and
    4 billion
    critics
 
    and the longest
    run
    you ever hope
    for
    is
 
    one
    day.

darkness & ice
     
     
    I am spooked by the bluebells and the silent harp while
    passing down Western Avenue and seeing the tombstones
    placed flat instead of upright upon the cemetery lawn: our decent
    modernity not wanting to upset us with Finalities while we
    pay 22% interest on our credit cards.
 
    I follow the street on down
    feeling wonderful that I do not appear to be lost.
    we need our landmarks (like cemeteries), we need our
    liquor and our liabilities.
    we need so many things we think we do not
    need.
 
    strangely then, as I drive south, I begin thinking about
    THE WORLD IS SQUARE, INC., an institution which meets and
    discusses the fact that: the world is square and the North Pole is at
    the CENTER of the SQUARE and holds everything from sliding
    over the edge and that the EDGE is really a WALL OF
    DARKNESS AND ICE and that nothing or nobody can go through
    and that
    when we THINK we are circling the globe we are only
    CIRCLING the SQUARE , finally arriving back
    where we began.
 
    I wait at a signal, the light turns green and I move on
    thinking, well, maybe the planets we believe are round are
    illusions, and the moon and the sun, they are really square
    too.
 
    well, you can’t rule anything out; I vote for round
    but I still realize that it wasn’t too long ago when
    EVERYBODY thought the answer was SQUARE .
 
    I stop at another signal, wait, while being held from falling
    over the EDGE OF DARKNESS AND ICE by the North Pole standing in the
    CENTER of the SQUARE .
    the light changes, I drive on, turn left, go a few blocks, turn
    right, go a block or so, turn left, go a block, turn right, then
    a left and I am at my driveway, turn in, drive slowly up to
    the garage
    past the tangerine tree and the tangerines are round but
    the garage door is square and I am still spooked by the
    bluebells and the silent harp
    cut the engine
    get out
    stand up
    still alive.
 
    I move along the walk.
    god, things are getting interesting again: they say there are
    bottomless craters at the North Pole and deep in the earth live
    Creatures from Outer Space
    down there
    in a marvelous, beautiful and peaceful Kingdom, I move toward the
    door, make ready to open it, not at all sure of what will be
    waiting on the other side—there is always this gnarling
    apprehension
    generally but not always warranted, and as the North Pole holds me
    from falling off either the Curve or the
    Edge
    I push open the wooden wall and enter, ready and not ready
    enough.

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