Monday, July 27, 2015

the blade by Charles Bukowski

the blade 

there was no parking near the post office where I worked at night 
so I found this splendid spot 
(Nobody seemed to care to park there) 

on a dirt road behind a 
slaughterhouse 
and as I sat in my car 
just before work 
smoking a last cigarette 
I was treated to the same 
scene 

as each evening tailed off into 
night-the pigs were herded out of the 
yard pens 
and onto runways 
by a man making pig sounds and 
flapping a large canvas 
and the pigs ran wildly 
up the runway 
toward the waiting 
blade, 
and many evenings 
after watching that 
after finishing my 
smoke 
I just started the car 
backed out of there and 
drove away from my 
job. 

My absenteeism reached such astonishing 
proportions.

that I had to finally 
park 
at some expense 

behind a Chinese bar 
where all I could see were tiny shuttered 
windows 

with neon signs advertising some Oriental 
libation. 

it seemed less real, and that was 
what was 
needed.