When Bernie Sanders suspends
his presidential campaign
when John Prine dies
when the orange madman in the White House
hosts daily
self-fellatio sessions
live on American television
When the caronavirus murders capitalism
When the world disappears around you
and you’re alone in your underwear
playing video games at 1am
Ya gotta get back to Bukowski
back to the tigers that find you
back to bluebirds that only sing at night
back to the typewriter that types
and the radio that has guts
back to cold, one-quart beer bottles
and chain-smoking cigarettes
back to Bukowski
where it first made sense
you remember when you first read the gospel
a poetry collection at the community college library
you were trying to write poetry
but didn’t know how to be a poet
You read that book of poems in one evening
read it again
went back to the community college library
checked out the other 4 books they had
read Ham on Rye in one afternoon
read a book of poetry that night
stayed up all night
and read another
You remember no one knew you were a poet
except a handful of broken lovers
until you showed some poems to Austin
and he said you reminded him of Buk
Austin was the only human you’d ever met
that knew Bukowski
you were 28 then
and broken, too
You remember meeting a poet at work
your last day on the second shift
back when you were still hanging tires
on Jeep Cherokees
You remember meeting Adrian
He was the first person
besides yourself
that worked in a factory and was also a poet
that you’d ever met
You were 34 then
and evolving
You remember the gospel never dies
Yeah, man
when the world finally goes mad
and starts to eat itself
Ya gotta get back to Bukowski
©️Dan Denton - Toledo, Ohio