clock

the occupant of this particular room was Esam

no grounding in the classics

i haven't slept

for 3 nights 

or 3 days

and my eyes are more 

red than white;

i laugh in the mirror,

and i have been listening to the clock

tick

and the gas

of my heater smells

a hot thick

heavy

smell, run

through with the sounds 

of cars,

cars strung up 

like ornaments

in my head, but

i have read

the classics

and on my couch

sleeps a wine-soaked

whore

who for the first

time

has heard 

Beethoven's 9th,

and bored,

has fallen asleep,

politely

listening.

just think, daddy, she said,

with your brains

you might be the first man

to copulate 

on the moon.

Charles Bukowski