My Favorite New Year's Poem

By my favorite poet in the world, Charles Bukowski:

Palm Leaves

at exactly 12:00 midnight

1973-74

Los Angeles

it began to rain on the

palm leaves outside my window

the horns and the firecrackers

went off

and it thundered.

I'd gone to bed at 9:00 p.m.

turned out the lights

pulled up the covers --

their gaiety, their happiness

their screams, their paper hats,

their automobiles, their women

their amateur drunks...

New Year's Eve always terrifies me

life knows nothing of years.

now the horns have stopped and

the firecrackers and the thunder...

it's all over in five minutes...

all I hear is the rain

on the palm leaves,

and I think,

I will never understand men,

but I have lived

it through.