Charles Bukowski - Earthquake
текст песни

Americans don’t know what tragedy is
a little 6.5 earthquake can set them to chattering
like monkeys
a piece of chinaware broken,
the Union Rescue Mission falls down

6 a.m.
they sit in their cars
they’re all driving around
where are they going?

a little excitement has broken into their
canned lives

stranger stands next to stranger
chattering gibberish fear
anxious fear
anxious laughter …

my baby, my flowerpots, my ceiling
my bank account

this is just a tickler
a feather
and they can’t bear it …

suppose they bombed the city
as other cities have been bombed
not with an a-bomb
but with ordinary blockbusters
day after day,
every day
as has happened
in other cities of the world?

if the rest of the world could see you today
their laughter would bring the sun to its knees
and even the flowers would leap from the ground
like bulldogs
and chase you away to where you belong
wherever that is,
and who cares where it is
as long as it’s somewhere away from
here.