Poem for barbara, poem for jane, poem for

frances, poem for all or any of them

the fish ate the flower

and the tombs whistled
Dixie
as you told me you didn’t care
anymore
old men in the pawnshops of the world
looked around and killed themselves in my mind
when you said you
didn’t care
anymore
the day I saw you with your new
lover
you and your new lover
walking down my boulevards
past the butcher shop
past the liquor store
past the real estate
agency
ha ha
suddenly I didn’t care
anymore
I went into the store and I bought
a figurine of a fawn
a small cactus
a box of shrimp
a pair of green gloves
a paring knife
some incense
pepper milk eggs
a fifth of
whiskey
and a roadmap of lower
Texas
the clerk put it all in a bag
it bulged and was heavy and
at last I knew that I had
something.

Charles Bukowski