1 there are these 2 women
2 I know who are
3 quite similar
4 almost the same
5 age
6 well-read
7 literary
8 I once slept with both of
9 them
10 but that's all
11 over
12 we're friends
13 they've been to Africa
14 Paris
15 Greece
16 here and there
17 fucked some famous men
18 one is now living with a
19 millionaire
20 some few miles
21 from here
22 goes to breakfast and
23 dinner with him
24 feeds his fish his cats and
25 his dog
26 when she gets drunk she phones
27 me
28 the other is having it
29 more difficult living
30 alone in a small apartment in
31 Venice (Calif.)
32 listening to the bongo
33 drums
34 famous men seem to want
35 young women
36 a young woman is easier
37 to get rid
38 of: they have more
39 places to
40 go
41 it is difficult for women who
42 were once beautiful
43 to get
44 old
45 they have to become more
46 intelligent (if they want to
47 hold their men) and do
48 more things
49 in bed and out of
50 bed
51 these 2 women I know
52 they're good both
53 in and out of
54 bed
55 and they're intelligent
56 intelligent enough to know
57 they can't come see me
58 and stay
59 more than an
60 hour or two
61 they are quite
62 similar
63 and I know
64 if they read this poem
65 they'll understand
66 it
67 just as well as they
68 understand
69 Rimbaud or Rilke
70 or Keats
71 meanwhile I have met a
72 young blonde from the
73 Fairfax district
74 as she looks at my paintings
75 on the walls
76 I rub the bottoms of
77 her feet.
Africa, Paris, Greece Charles Bukowski