South Africa, Charles Bukowski

LOOKING FOR OUR OWN BUKOWSKI

we rule
the world in rugby

so why should we not
rule the world, the Continent,
the galaxy
with our Bukowski’s

was
the premise of a reality show
and now I am hurtling
in a van
fresh from the airport
looking to find our own Bukowski
combing the bars, scouring
the shebeens looking
for a soul out there in
as yet ungentrified Cape Town
able to
distil door and
alcohol into poetry

to drive us rhapsodic
with his laconic drawl

will we find him?
will we find him?

trying to get
hype-machine into
top gear to
drum up a hype machine
inflect those all
so precious ratings

thinking of the format
as we drive
thinking of every
future episode

pots of gold at the end
of this wholly contrived
quite
amazing rainbow

can see
those lips moving in
my mind’s-eye camera
as we chat even now