what do they want?
there are times when those eyes inside your
brain stare back at
you;
it is always sudden.
sometimes when you come in
and lie down on the bed
it happens—
2 eyes that have nothing to do with
you
stare back at you from inside your
brain.
you sit up
until they go away.
or say you scream at a child
or slap a woman—
as you walk into the kitchen
the eyes appear in the back of your brain
hand there
as you drink
water.
or somtimes you are at peace
sitting on a park bench
reading a newspaper—
here come the
eyes:
fat red golden eyes,
a pair.
you get up and
walk
away.
or the phone rings and as you answer the
phone
the eyes arrive again—
“yes, of course. no, I’m not doing
anything. yeh, I feel
o.k.”
then you hang up, go to the bathroom and
throw water on
your face.
I would gladly give these eyes to the
blind or to anybody who
would take them.
o, o, there they are
again.
I don’t understand it.
what do they
want?
-Charles Bukowski, “what do they want?”
