Donna Highley

“I climbed the stairway (there was no elevator) and put the key in. The door swung open. Somebody had changed all the furniture around, put in a new rug. No, the furniture was new, too.
There was a woman on the couch. She looked all right. Young. Good legs. Blonde.
'Hello,' I said, 'care for a beer?'
'Hi!' she said. 'All right, I'll have one.'
'I like the way this place is fixed up,' I told her.
'I did it myself.'
'But why?'
'I just felt like it,' she said.
We each drank at the beer.
'You're all right,' I said. I put my beercan down and gave her a kiss. I put my hand on one of her knees. It was a nice knee.
Then I had another swallow of beer.
'Yes,' I said, 'I really like the way this place looks. It's really going to lift my spirits.'
'That's nice. My husband likes it too.'
'Now why would your husband...What? Your husband? Look, what's this apartment number?'
'309.'
'309? Great Christ! I'm on the wrong floor! I live in 409.”
― Charles Bukowski

“and then there are some who
believe that old
relationships can be
revived and made new
again.

but please
if you feel that way

don't phone
don't write
don't arrive”
― Bukowski C.

“And so it goes...”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

“I held her
wrists and then I got it through the eyes: hatred,
centuries deep and true. I was wrong and graceless and
sick. all the things I had learned had been wasted.
there was no creature living as foul as I
and all my poems were
false.”
― Charles Bukowski