“A Trick to Dull Our Bleeding
practically speaking
the great words of great men
are not so great.nor do great nations nor great beauties
leave anything but the residue
of reputation to be slowly
gnawed away.nor do great wars seem so great,
nor great poems
nor first-hand legends.even the sad deaths
are not now so sad,
and failure was nothing but a
trick
to keep us going,and fame and love
a trick to dull our bleeding.and as fire becomes ash and steel
becomes rust, we become
wise
and then
not so wise.and we sit in chairs
reading old maps,
wars done, loves done, lives done,and a child plays before us like a monkey
and we tap our pipe and yawn,
close our eyes and sleep.pretty words
”
like pretty ladies,
wrinkle up and die.
— Charles Bukowski, The Roominghouse Madrigals
October 29, 2010, 6:50pm
