3 Poems For The Price of 1 (Part 3)

Lonely Hearts

when you start boring yourself
you know damn well
you're going to start
boring other people;
in fact, all the people you come
in contact with:
on the telephone, in the post
office, over a bowl of
spaghetti.

oh, all the tiresome people with their
tiresome stories:
like how they got screwed by life's
Unkind Forces, how they are fucked
and there isn't much they can do
now
except tell you about it.

then they step back and wait for
you to console them
but what you really feel like doing
is
piss all over them,
which might stop them from
inviting themselves over for
dinner
and then telling you more about
their tragic
lives.

there are more and more of
them,
they line up outside in the gloom
waiting for you.
nobody else will listen to
them.
they've alienated
hundreds of former
friends, lovers and acquaintances
but they still need to whine and
complain.

I'm sending them all over to
see you
starting today.
get your compassion and understanding
ready.

I might be there at the end of that
line
myself.

- Charles Bukowski