Love is a Dog From Hell

Charles Bukowski

• Publisher: Ecco
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9780876853627
• eBook ISBN: 9780061847011
• Subtopic: Classics

A classic in the Bukowski poetry canon, Love Is a Dog from Hell is a raw, lyrical, exploration of the exigencies, heartbreaks, and limits of love.

A book that captures the Dirty Old Man of American letters at his fiercest and most vulnerable, on a subject that hits home with all of us. Charles Bukowski was a man of intense emotions, someone an editor once called a “passionate madman.” Alternating between tough and gentle, sensitive and gritty, Bukowski lays bare the myriad facets of love—its selfishness and its narcissism, its randomness, its mystery and its misery, and, ultimately, its true joyfulness, endurance, and redemptive power.

"there is a loneliness in this world so great

that you can see it in the slow movement of

the hands of a clock."

1

one more creature dizzy with love

Sandra

Is the slim tall

ear-ringed

bedroom damsel

dressed in a long

gown

She’s always high

in heels

spirit

pills

booze

Sandra leans out of

her chair

leans

toward

Glendale

I wait for her head

to hit the closet

doorknob

as she attempts to

light

a new cigarette on an

almost burnt-out

one

At 32 she likes

young neat

unscratched boys

with faces like the bottoms

of new saucers

She has proclaimed as much

to me

has brought her prizes

over for me to view:

silent blonde zeros of young

flesh

who

a) sit

b) stand

c) talk

at her command

Sometimes she brings one

sometimes two

sometimes three

for me to

view

Sandra looks very good in

long gowns

Sandra could probably break

a man’s heart

I hope she finds

one.

you

You’re a beast, she said

your big white belly

and those hairy feet.

You never cut your nails

and you have fat hands

paws like a cat

your bright red nose

and the biggest balls

I’ve ever seen.

You shoot sperm like a

whale shoots water out of the

hole in its back.

Beast beast beast,

she kissed me,

what do you want for

breakfast?

the 6 foot goddess

I’m big

I suppose that’s why my women always seem

small

but this 6 foot goddess

who deals in real estate

and art

and flies from Texas

to see me

and I fly to Texas

to see her—

well, there’s plenty of her to

grab hold of

and I grab hold of it

of her,

I yank her head back by the hair,

I’m real macho,

I suck on her upper lip

her cunt

her soul

I mount her and tell her,

“I’m going to shoot white hot

juice into you. I didn’t fly all the

way to Galveston to play

chess.”

Later we lay locked like human vines

my left arm under her pillow

my right arm over her side

I grip both of her hands,

and my chest

belly

balls

cock

tangle into her

and through us

in the dark

pass rays

back and forth

back and forth

until I fall away

and we sleep.

She’s wild

but kind

my 6 foot goddess

makes me laugh

the laughter of the mutilated

who still need

love,

and her blessed eyes

run deep into her head

like mountain springs

far in

and

cool and good.

She has saved me

from everything that is

not here.

I’ve seen too many glazed-eyed bums sitting under a bridge drinking cheap wine

You sit...

Table of contents

• Dedication
• Contents
• Part One
• Part Two
• Part Three
• Part Four
• About the Author
• By Charles Bukowski
• Copyright
• About the Publisher