Wearing the collar by Charles Bukowski

wearing the collar
I live with a lady and four cats
and some days we all get
along.

some days I have trouble with
one of the
cats.

other days I have trouble with
two of the
cats.

other days,
three.

some days I have trouble with
all four of the
cats

and the
lady:

ten eyes looking at me
as if I was a dog.

The Los Angeles poet Charles Bukowski is the real poetic deal. He spent most of his life working as post filing clerk but he put his soul into the real business of life, drinking, womanizing and writing. If you want the voice of experience, husky from Jack Daniels and too many untipped cigarettes then it is hard to beat Bukowski. His downbeat dirty realism inspired a generation of American writers like Raymond Carver and Richard Ford. If writing can be smoke filled, then this is it.