Algo

The Man With The Beautiful Eyes

When we were kids

there was a strange house

All the shades were always drawn

and we never heard voices in there

And the yard was full of bamboo

and we liked to play in the bamboo

Pretend we were Tarzan

(although there was no Jane).

And there was a fish pond

A large one full of the

Fattest goldfish you ever saw

and they were tame.

They came to the surface of the water

and took pieces of bread from our hands.

Our parents had told us:“never go near that house.”

so, of course,we went.

We wondered if anybody lived there.

weeks went by and we never saw anybody.

Then one day we heard a voice from the house

“YOU GOD DAMNED WHORE!”

It was a man’s voice.

Then the screen door of the house was flung open

and the man walked out.

He was holding a fifth of whiskey in his right hand.

He was about 30.

He had a cigar in his mouth,

needed a shave.

His hair was wild and uncombed

and he was barefoot in undershirt and pants.

But his eyes were bright.

they blazed with brightness 

and he said, “hey little gentlemen,

having a good time, I hope?”

Then he gave a little laugh

and walked back into the house.

We left, 

went back to my parent’s yard and thought about it.

Our parents, we decided

had wanted us to stay away from there

because they never wanted us to see a man like that,

a strong natural man with beautiful eyes.

Our parents were ashamed 

that they were not like that man,

that’s why they wanted us to stay away.

But we went back to that house

and the bamboo and the tame goldfish.

We went back many times 

for many weeks

but we never saw or heard the man again.

The shades were down as always

and it was quiet.

Then one day as we came back from school

we saw the house.

It had burned down,

there was nothing left,

just a smoldering twisted black foundation

and we went to the fish pond

and there was no water in it

and the fat orange goldfish were dead there,

drying out.

We went back to my parents’ yard

and talked about it

and decided that our parents had burned their house down,

had killed them

had killed the goldfish because it was all too beautiful,

even the bamboo forest had burned.

They had been afraid of the man with the beautiful eyes.

and we were afraid then that all through our lives

things like that would happen,

that nobody wanted anybody to be strong and beautiful like that,

that others would never allow it,

and that many people would have to die.

from The Last Night on Earth Poems by

Charles Bukowski