excerpt from THE SHOWER by Charles Bukowski

...
it is usually mid-afternoon and quiet,
and getting dressed we talk about what else
there might be to do,
but being together solves most of it
for as long as those things stay solved
in the history of women and
man, it's different for each-
for me, it's splendid enough to remember
past the memories of pain and defeat and unhappiness:
Linda, you brought it to me
when you take it away
do it slowly and easily
make it as if I were dying in my sleep
instead of in my life
amen