Something To Ponder...

sometimes even putting a nickel into a parking meter feels good-

precious grenades inside my skull,
I'd rather grow roses than nurture self-pity,
but sometimes it really begins to tell on me
and I have visions of house trailers and
hookers slipping into giant volcanic cracks
just south of Santa Barbara.

I guess what makes me feel better
are the truly sane: the motorcycle cop
in a clean uniform who gives me a ticket and
then rides away on two wheels like a man
who never had an itchy crotch.
or the Southern California Gas Company man
with ill-fitting dentures
who knocks at my door at 8:15 a.m. and
lights up the room with his piranha smile.

yes,
the real miracles are the thousands of tiny
people who know exactly what they are doing.

I used to look for inspiration in higher
places
but the higher you go
like to Plato or God
the less space there is in which to
stand.

check it out some day. you're driving down
the street and there's a guy hanging onto
the end of a hydraulic jack
sweat bathing his naked gut
his eyes slitted as his
body shakes and trembles
but he holds on as if to an ultimate truth, and
you smile and
you put it into second gear
check the rearview mirror and think,
yes, I can make it too, and you light a
cigarette with one hand
turn on the radio with the other
and let the good life roll along like
that.

-Charles Bukowski