Today’s guest poet  —  Charles Bukowski

nobody but you

nobody can save you but
yourself.
you will be put again and again
into nearly impossible
situations.
they will attempt again and again
through subterfuge, guise and
force
to make you submit, quit and/or die quietly
inside.

nobody can save you but
yourself
and it will be easy enough to fail
so very easily
but don’t, don’t, don’t.
just watch them.
listen to them.
do you want to be like that?
a faceless, mindless, heartless
being?
do you want to experience
death before death?

nobody can save you but
yourself
and you’re worth saving.
it’s a war not easily won
but if anything is worth winning then
this is it.

think about it.
think about saving your self.

(My note: Ordinarily (?) I’d imagine the appropriate picture to accompany this poem would be something spiritual or funereal, but considering who the author is, I felt a picture of pint might be more approps. Although he might have found a pint to be both spirtual and funereal.)