Paper and People by Charles Bukowski

there is just too much PAPER everywhere and
the 5 drawers of this desk are also stuffed
with IT and I have no idea what most of it
means.

about once every two months I attempt to
clean this room, I fill trash bags with paper
and etc. until my desk and the floor are almost
clean
but then
more PAPER arrives,
more manuscripts from poets, more letters from
poets and others, more magazines, more more
more
I can't keep up with it all
and I wonder if anyone besides myself
has to keep fighting the arrival of floods of
PAPER?
I don't seem to have the time to keep up with
it and i wonder if other people
have this problem too?
I don't think so
because they seem to have nothing but time
to kill,
they don't seem to know what to do with themselves,
they
work crossword puzzles, play Scrabble, they
watch tv, they go visiting, go sit on
someone else's couch and talk for hours or they
visit museums or they go to 3 movies a week. they
seem to have endless time to waste
and I have no time at all, I am fighting this
relentless tide of PAPER, all of which must be
gone through carefully because it often contains
notices from the IRS or unpaid bills.
yes, other people don't seem to have this
problem with PAPER PAPER PAPER gathering
everywhere, stacked upon itself,
and when people come to visit and
shoot my hours through the head they
offer nothing interesting or constructive.
I find myself resenting them and
their chatter
their idle ways
since I am always fighting for each minute,
a minute to straighten this out or that
out
and as I sit with them and their chatter,
as all the minutes are murdered,
I find that they themselves are like ACCUMULATED
PAPER,
you have to get rid of them
before they overwhelm and smother you.

am I the only one with this
problem?
PAPER and PEOPLE, such a waste,
such a terrible
waste.