Earthquake - Charles Bukowski

Americans don’t know what tragedy is a little 6.5 earthquake can set them to chattering like monkeys a piece of chinaware broken, the Union Rescue Mission falls down 6 a.m. they sit in their cars they’re all driving around where are they going? a little excitement has broken into their canned lives stranger stands next to stranger chattering gibberish fear anxious fear anxious laughter ... my baby, my flowerpots, my ceiling my bank account this is just a tickler a feather and they can’t bear it ... suppose they bombed the city as other cities have been bombed not with an a-bomb but with ordinary blockbusters day after day, every day as has happened in other cities of the world? if the rest of the world could see you today their laughter would bring the sun to its knees and even the flowers would leap from the ground like bulldogs and chase you away to where you belong wherever that is, and who cares where it is as long as it’s somewhere away from here. #charlesbukowski #audiobook #poem #charlesbukowskipoems #earthquake