Saturday, March 16, 2013

In Praise of Self-Deprecation by Wislawa Szymborska


The buzzard has nothing to fault himself with.
Scruples are alien to the black panther.
Piranhas do not doubt the rightness of their actions.
The rattlesnake approves of himself without reservations.
The self-critical jackal does not exist.
The locust, alligator, trichina, horsefly
live as they live and are glad of it.
The killer whale’s heart weighs one hundred kilos
but in other respects it is light.
There is nothing more animal-like
than a clear conscience
on the third planet of the Sun.


Sunday, March 3, 2013

sunday before noon by Charles Bukowski


spinach, Gabriel
all fall down,
all fall down and blow,
barbados, barbados,
where are yr toes?

the branches break, the birds fall, the buildings burn,
the whores stand straight,
the bombs stack,
evening, morning, night,
peanutbutter,
peanutbutter falcons,
rain breathing like lilies from the top of my head,
pincers pincers
kisses like steel clamps
mouths full of moths,
hydra-headed cocksuckers,
Florida in full moon,
shark with mouthful of man
man with mouthful of peanutbutter, rain
rain peeking into the guts of grey hours,
horses dreaming of horses,
flowers dreaming of flowers, 
horses running with greyhour pieces of my lovely flesh,
bread burning, all Spain on fire and 
cities dreaming of craters,
bombs bigger than the brains of anything,
going down
are the clocks cocks roosters?
the roosters stand on the fence
the roosters are peanutbutter crowing,
the FLAME will be high, the flame will be big,
kiss kiss kiss
everything away,
I hope it rains today, I hope
the jets die, I hope
the kitten finds a mouse, I hope
I don't see it, I hope
it rains, I hope
anything away from here,
I hope a bridge, a fish, a cactus somewhere
strutting whiskers to the noon,
I dream flowers and horses
the branches break the birds fall the buildings 
burn, my whore walks across the room and
smiles at me.