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10 March 94 - 7am
Motor City Steve is at the dawn door with a couple 40s. Just another day in hell. Prop open my right eyelid with a twist-off top. Grab a section of Steve's always present latest daily news. Got the obits. Great. I'll look & see if I made it to another day...
...but Bukowski didn't make it. San Pedro Penninsula Hospital 4 March 1994. 4pm.
Stumble awake-now but must-be-dreaming. Stagger to the phone. Make a few necessary calls. Fnord.
By now I've already decided to get stupid drunk. Hang up the phone & start to drink...not to drown any sadness nor to be "like Buk"...just want to have a good one for all the good ones he's given me. To say "I'll miss you, old man" to one typer extraordinaire.
But the drunk didn't happen until several night later after a gallery showing with free wine. Then later beer & Wild Turkey with Scott Free & sad poet friend F. Smella.
But the drunk didn't happen that 7am Motor City Steve obit Buk morning because daily life kept inseting bits of reality upon the tapestry of fantay that years of sharing Hank's wild times had painted in the instant my beer-cap propped open eye had scanned "Charles Bukowski Dead at 73, Poet Whose Subject was EXCESS!"
Was EXCESS!
I guess I somehow understand the oh-so twisted 'logic' of that be-here-now reality that I was forced to face that particular day. Sober & responsible. But it sucked.
Bye, Hank.
To EXCESS!
If you'd like to download & hear another version of "The Most" from Bukowski in Dub, go here.
Enjoy,
NØ
This is classic and so true to the man, thank you. I still remember those jobless days sitting in my nest reading his books getting inebriated at times.
ReplyDeleteShit, man. Bukowski in Dub. "The Most" Dub cut was gear. Where can I find the whole album? I must have it. No holding out.
ReplyDelete