Dreamlessly – Charles Bukowski

Charles Bukowski

“they feel no terror
at loving
or at not
being loved”

It’s amazing how this man managed to sum up all of my inner most feelings towards humanity in a mere 11 words. I was at the bookstore in Jupiter when I read this particular poem and I remember looking up and around me wanting to just run up to anyone and exclaim “someone figured it out!” But I didn’t think they would understand.

Click below for the rest of the poem

 

DREAMLESSLY
By: Charles Bukowski

old grey-haired waitresses
in cafes at night
have given it up,
and as i walk down sidewalks of
light and look into windows
of nursing homes
I can see that it is no longer
with them.
I see people sitting on park benches
and i can see by the way they
sit and look 
that it is gone.

I see people driving cars
and I see by the way
they drive their cars
that they neither love nor are 
loved -
nor do they consider
sex. it is all forgotten 
like an old movie.

I see people in department stores and
supermarkets
walking down aisles
buying things
and i can see by the way their clothing 
fits them and by the way they walk
and by their faces and their eyes
that they care for nothing 
and that nothing cares
for them.

I see a hundred people a day 
who have given up 
entirely.

if I go to the racetrack 
or a sporting event
I can see thousands 
that feel for nothing or
no one
and get no feeling 
back.

everywhere I see those who
crave nothing but
food, shelter, and 
clothing; they concentrate
on that,
dreamlessly

I do not understand why these people do not
vanish
I do not understand why these people do not 
expire
why the clouds
do not murder them
or why the dogs 
do not murder them
or why the flowers and the children 
do not murder them, 
I do not understand.

I suppose they are murdered
yet i can’t adjust to the 
fact of them
because they are so many.

each day, 
each night, 
there are more of them
in the subways and
in the buildings and
in the parks

they feel no terror 
at not loving
or at not
being loved

so many many many
of my fellow

creatures
 

~ by migbike on July 10, 2008.