Self Medication

"things never get so bad
that we can´t remember
that maybe they were
never so good.

we swam upstream
through all those rivers of shit.
no use drowning
now
and
wasting all that
gallant and stupid
fight.

upstream through it all
to end up
sitting here
in front of this machine
with
cigarette dangling
and
drink at hand.

no glory more than this

doing what has to be done
in this small
room

just to stay alive and to
type these words with

no net below
3 million readers holding their breath

as i stop

reach around
and scratch my
right
ear."

Charles Bukoski, New Poems, book III