Reflections on the Centennial of Charles Bukowski

Reflections on the Centennial of Charles Bukowski







reading Shakespeare



I wrote all night

then threw it all in the trash

rejecting what would’ve been

rejected anyway



I can’t say

if it shows a disregard for the poet

or the poetry —

but I feel sorry for all those

pansies, whores, homos, and poets



reading Shakespeare and chewing cardboard

while waxing and wallowing philosophic,

teetering between absurdity and seriousness —

the pain, madness, and truth of it all

when facing the long decline



who don’t ever even make it 

out to play the quarter horses

at the race track



be careful…

when you reach the top

you just might find 

it flattens out —

flattens us all.

Michael C. Seeger

Michael lives with his lovely wife, Catherine, and still-precocious 16 year-old daughter, Jenetta, in a house with a magnificent Maine Coon (Jill) and two high-spirited Chihuahuas (Coco and Blue). He is an educator (like his wife) residing in the Coachella Valley near Palm Springs, California. Some of his poems have appeared recently either published or included in print anthologies like the Lummox Press, Better Than Starbucks, and The Literary Hatchet