Christmas and New Year’s move
toward us
again
the old sickening
duet
the masses coming out
of their tv
caves
the family
gatherings
the gross
dull
nothingness,
the fake
drunks,
the fake
smiles,
the fake
people
may we live
through this
somehow,
one more
time
* This “found poem” is a reworking, in poetic form, of an excerpt from a letter that Charles Bukowski wrote to Douglas Goodwin on December 4, 1992 (12:16 AM). Reworked by Jay Dougherty, from letters that Douglas Goodwin provided to Dougherty. See also the book Reach for the Sun: Selected Letters 1978–1994, Volume 3, and see additional letters from Bukowski to Goodwin in [bju:k]—das jahrbuch der Charles-Bukowski-Gesellschaft, Jahrbuch 2015/16, published by the Charles Bukowski Gesellschaft, Bamberg, Germany.