Two poems by MARK WISNIEWSKI
To Bukowski, #1
you’re the only person
I’ve known who’s endured
the oddity of recent
days in this house
I’m not saying I’ve even
approached your acclaim: I’ve too
often backed
away from the fight
sometimes because
as you’ve long known
bringing as much as a glimpse
of your vision onto a page
guarantees probable
rejection & as you may
or may not know tonight
I still can’t
gamble like you did
55 The Paris-American
you’re the only person
I’ve known who’s endured
the oddity of recent
days in this house
I’m not saying I’ve even
approached your acclaim: I’ve too
often backed
away from the fight
sometimes because
as you’ve long known
bringing as much as a glimpse
of your vision onto a page
guarantees probable
rejection & as you may
or may not know tonight
I still can’t
gamble like you did
55 The Paris-American
To Bukowski, #3
they haven’t
forgotten you & just
as you suspected they are cashing
in on you now that they need
not support you
they use
manuscripts of yours they once rejected
toast to their profits
without mentioning your
name walls of their Manhattan
homes boast
Picassos yet they continue
to scrounge up work you hid
to again make sure
that I pay them
56 The Paris-American
they haven’t
forgotten you & just
as you suspected they are cashing
in on you now that they need
not support you
they use
manuscripts of yours they once rejected
toast to their profits
without mentioning your
name walls of their Manhattan
homes boast
Picassos yet they continue
to scrounge up work you hid
to again make sure
that I pay them
56 The Paris-American
Mark Wisniewski’s poems have appeared in Poetry, New York Quarterly, Prairie Schooner, Hiram Poetry Review, Confrontation, Post Road, and Poetry International. His second novel, Show Up, Look Good, was praised by Ben Fountain, Christine Sneed, Jonathan Lethem, and T. R. Hummer. His fiction has won a Pushcart Prize and appeared in Best American Short Stories.