August Afternoon with Bukowski’s Long-Lost Cousin

Dirty-whiskered dive bar man says

That I’m a pretty thing, like a Cambodian princess

Maybe better with jewels, who knows

But whiskey neat is the best drink.

Tastes a lot better in the winter time, I think

‘Cause it burns the lips and burns going down and burns as it settles in your stomach

But that is how I like it.

Can cook it with chicken too, ‘cause you need some, you skinny creature you

Used to char it on the road with my bike,

What a beauty she was, Clementine, sexy, slim

Whisper-roar like Leviathan

And they told me I had to stop, ‘cause my bad back

got thrown out moving, I move a lot

Sonora's something else, should see the cacti in the sunset

When the wind picks up and swirls the sand a bit

And it got in my eyes sometimes, I think that’s why

My eyesight ain’t as good as it used to be

But maybe I just been getting old.

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