Near a Plate Glass Window

Dogs and angels are not 

very far apart. 

I often go to this little place 

to eat 

about 2:30 in the afternoon 

because all the people who eat 

there are completely sane, 

glad to be simply alive and 

eating their food 

near a plate glass window 

which welcomes the sun 

but doesn’t let the cars and 

the sidewalks come inside. 

across the street is a Chinese 

nudie bar 

already open at 2:30 in the 

afternoon. 

it is painted an 

inane and helpless 

blue. 

we are allowed as many free 

coffees as we can drink 

and we all sit and quietly drink 

the strong black coffee. 

it is good to be sitting some place 

in public at 2:30 in the afternoon 

without getting the flesh ripped from 

your bones. 

nobody bothers us. 

we bother nobody. 

angels and dogs are not 

very far apart 

at 2:30 in the afternoon. 

I have my favorite table 

by the window 

and after I have finished 

I stack the plates, saucers, 

the cup, the silverware, etc. 

neatly 

in one easy pile— 

my offering to the 

elderly waitress— 

food and time 

untorn, 

and that bastard sun 

out there 

working good 

all up and 

down.

— Charles Bukowski, The People Look Like Flowers at Last