For the Foxes
For the Foxes - meaning Summary
Stubborn Solitude as Survival
Bukowski's for the foxes declares the speaker's self-sufficiency and rejects pity. He contrasts himself with people who endlessly rearrange relationships and identities, warning that their instability spreads. He criticizes those who follow prescribed guides—religion or conventional love—as failing to live authentically. Alone, the speaker relies on dark humor and eccentric images to endure hardship; survival depends on stubbornness and luck rather than sympathy. The poem frames solitude as active survival and satirizes conventional comfort, reflecting Bukowski's recurring themes of individualism and contempt for social norms.
Read Complete AnalysesDon't feel sorry for me. I am a competent, satisfied human being. Be sorry for the others who fidget complain, who constantly rearrange their lives like furniture. Juggling mates and attitudes their confusion is constant and it will touch whoever they deal with. Beware of them: One of their key words is "love." And beware those who only take instructions from their God, for they have failed completely to live their own lives. Don't feel sorry for me because I am alone for even at the most terrible moments humor is my companion. I am a dog walking backwards, I am a broken banjo, I am a telephone wire strung up in Toledo, Ohio, I am a man eating a meal this night in the month of September. Put your sympathy aside. They say water held up Christ: To come through you better be nearly as lucky.
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