January

here
you see this
hand

here you see this
sky
this
bridge

hear this
sound

the agony of the
elephant

the nightmare of the
midget

while
caged parrots
sit in a
flourish of
color

while pieces of
people
fall over the
edge
like pebbles
like
rocks

madhouses screaming in
pain

as the royalty of the
world is
photographed
say
on horseback
or
say
watching a procession
in their
honor

as
the junkies junk
as the alkies drink
as the whores whore
as the killers kill

the albatross blinks its
eyes

the weather stays
mostly
the same.

Charles Bukowski


(Picture: Windy night sky, Albert Bloch-1944)