PoemCows In Art Class
Author / PoetCharles Bukowski
TagsArt, Bar, Beer, Cow

good weather
is like
good women-
it doesn’t always happen
and when it does
it doesn’t
always last.
man is
more stable:
if he’s bad
there’s more chance
he’ll stay that way,
or if he’s good
he might hang
on,
but a woman
is changed
by
children
age
diet
conversation
sex
the moon
the absence or
presence of sun
or good times.
a woman must be nursed
into subsistence
by love
where a man can become
stronger
by being hated.
I am drinking tonight in Spangler’s Bar
and I remember the cows
I once painted in Art class
and they looked good
they looked better than anything
in here. I am drinking in Spangler’s Bar
wondering which to love and which
to hate, but the rules are gone:
I love and hate only
myself-
they stand outside me
like an orange dropped from the table
and rolling away; it’s what I’ve got to
decide:
kill myself or
love myself?
which is the treason?
where’s the information
coming from?
books…like broken glass:
I wouldn’t wipe my ass with ’em
yet, it’s getting
darker, see?
(we drink here and speak to
each other and
seem knowing.)
buy the cow with the biggest
tits
buy the cow with the biggest
rump.
present arms.
the bartender slides me a beer
it runs down the bar
like an Olympic sprinter
and the pair of pliers that is my hand
stops it, lifts it,
golden piss of dull temptation,
I drink and
stand there
the weather bad for cows
but my brush is ready
to stroke up
the green grass straw eye
sadness takes me all over
and I drink the beer straight down
order a shot
fast
to give me the guts and the love to
go
on.

Charles Bukowski
Charles Bukowski
16 Aug 1920 - 9 Mar 1994
Region: Central America
Movement: Dirty Realism, Transgressive Fiction
Awards: National Endowment For The Arts

more poems by Charles Bukowski

Poem NameTopic
The History Of One Tough MotherfuckerFinally, Motherfucker, Night
The ShowerBall, Leg, Peaceful
So You Want To Be A WriterWriter
Yes YesCreate, God, Universe
Poetry ReadingsAmerica, Genius, Poetry
Like A Flower In The RainApple, Breast, Cigarette
The Most Beautiful Woman In TownBeautiful, Girl, Sister
Prayer In Bad WeatherBedrooms, Rain, Umbrella
To The Whore Who Took My PoemsCarbons, Poems, Poetry
SplashBrian, Poem, Room

all poems by Charles Bukowski

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