An Ode To The Reader Of The Charles Bukowski Poem, The Laughing Heart (Aka: The Laughing Heart's Boyfriend, Singing Spirit)

 

read it one more time.

take out your walls

brick by brick by bold.

 

let his bones begin

your days' bedframe

and let yourself be

the dream.

 

anything can happen here.

there are no rules. 

only old maps being torn asunder

fuel for the fire that is in you. 

 

save one map and

roll it up into a telescope

like you used to do

when you were a kid

when you were sure

of being perfectly ok

with being unsure. 

 

roll it up and look long and through to a point 

that you pick

on the horizon

where ole bukowski is smokin' and wavin' like crazy.

like a damn psychopath.

watch him kick the shore

with his words 

his rhythm

his defiance.

 

and say, when someone says, "you're weird,"

"at least I'm not normal."