The caged bird sings

I've long had a bit of a weakness for the works of Charles Bukowski, and have quoted him before a few times, both here and on The Barstool (which I suppose might seem to be the more natural home for them). But I can't now recall how I happened to stumble upon this nice little animation a few weeks back, for his poem Bluebird. [Oh, no, I can - but that perhaps is a post for another time. I was looking for something by Tom Waits, and discovered a YouTube video of Waits reading another Bukowski poem. That woke me up to the possibility of there being some Bukowski-related stuff on YouTube and I did a bit more searching...]

Bluebird

there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but I'm too tough for him,

I say, stay in there, I'm not going

to let anybody see

you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but I pour whiskey on him and inhale

cigarette smoke

and the whores and the bartenders

and the grocery clerks

never know that

he's

in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but I'm too tough for him,

I say,

stay down, do you want to mess

me up?

you want to screw up the

works?

you want to blow my book sales in

Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that

wants to get out

but I'm too clever, I only let him out

at night sometimes

when everybody's asleep.

I say, I know that you're there,

so don't be

sad.

then I put him back,

but he's singing a little

in there, I haven't quite let him

die

and we sleep together like

that

with our

secret pact

and it's nice enough to

make a man

weep, but I don't

weep, do

you?

Charles Bukowski  (1920-1994)