Monday's Poetry: "Bluebird"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator


Sometimes I look at the vilest among us and wonder what they were like as children.  I don't subscribe to the notion that people are born as haters.  Bigotry, criminality, and just being plain offensive are all learned behaviors.  But if we have it within us to turn into rotten individuals, is there not a chance that the spark of goodness with which we were born still resides somewhere within and may one day seize the opportunity to reassert itself?  Of course that is possible.  It's called rehabilitation or having a massive change of heart.  People change for many reasons, from finding the right person to share life with, to a life-altering medical crisis, to a sanction by society such as time in prison.

Today's poem, Bluebird, was written by Charles Bukowski in the early 1990's.  It addresses the little spark of goodness that we all possess, however deeply hidden away or forgotten, and characterizes it as a bluebird.  I found this piece to be particularly thought-provoking and moving.


Bluebird
by Charles Bukowski

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say, stay in there, I'm not going
to let anybody see
you.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I pour whiskey on him and inhale
cigarette smoke
and the whores and the bartenders
and the grocery clerks
never know that
he's
in there.

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too tough for him,
I say,
stay down, do you want to mess
me up?
you want to screw up the
works?
you want to blow my book sales in
Europe?

there's a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I'm too clever, I only let him out
at night sometimes
when everybody's asleep.
I say, I know that you're there,
so don't be
sad.
then I put him back,
but he's singing a little
in there, I haven't quite let him
die
and we sleep together like
that
with our
secret pact
and it's nice enough to
make a man
weep, but I don't
weep, do
you?