Dreamlessly
Colorlessness Faces. Stale Coffee. Bad Sex. Poor Traffic. Old Treadmills. Fake Food. I-95. Car Payments. Neon. Grey. Gone. Derivatives of derivatives. Cassius was Right.
“Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings”
Old, grey haired waitresses
In cafes at night have given it up
And as I walk down sidewalks of
Light and look into windows of nursing homes
I can see that it is no longer with them
I see people sitting on park benches
And I can see by the way they sit and look
That it is gone i see people driving cars
And I see by the way they drive their cars
That they neither love nor are loved -
Nor do they consider sex it is all forgotten
Like an old movie
I see people in department stores and
Supermarkets walking down aisles
Buying things
And I can see by the way their clothing
Fit's them and by the way they walk
And by their faces and their eyes
That they care for nothing
And that nothing cares for them
I see a hundred people a day
Who have given up entirely
If I go to the racetrack or a sporting event
I can see thousands that feel for nothing or
No one and get no feeling
Back everywhere I see those who
Crave nothing but food, shelter, and
Clothing they concentrate on that
Dreamlessly
I do not understand why these people do not
Vanish
I do not understand why these people do not
Expire why the clouds
Do not murder them or why the dogs
Do not murder them
Or why the flowers and the children
Do not murder them, I do not understand
I suppose they are murdered
Yet I can't adjust to the fact of them
Because they are so many
Each day, Each night
There are more of them in the subways and
In the buildings and in the parks
They feel no terror at not loving
Or at not being loved
So many many many of my fellow
Creatures
-Burning in Water Drowning in Flame. Charles Bukowski (1974)
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