Bukowski Contest Winner 3rd Place!
If Bukowski Met Plath (October 20, 2009. Issue 10.)
I read my Charles Bukowski.
She her Sylvia Plath. One more couple
that wouldn’t have gotten along.
Imagine them together. Plath would
describe in exquisite detail a blackhead
on Bukowski’s face. It’d become
the most famous literary pimple
in the Western World. He’d get
even more depressed, knowing
that he’d never achieve the fame
his pimple did. Bukowski would
be afraid to scratch it. He might
destroy it. Then critics would wonder
why Plath chose an imaginary subject
when there were real pimples to swoon over.
And Bukowski would write about their
one big argument, which was
the turning point in their relationship.
Which way did the relationship turn?
It turned away from them, leaving
two lonely people behind. The
relationship was spotted trying
to cozy up to Prince Charles and Diana.
But was unsuccessful, because they had
one already – Charles with Camille,
Princess Diana with her photographers –
until the photographers crossed the line,
setting up the chase, killing the one they loved.
All this proves my point – you don’t have
to be a poet to kill a relationship but it helps.
|