Girlfriends
Girlfriends - meaning Summary
Avoiding Recycled Relationships
The speaker refuses to revisit former lovers, comparing past relationships to finished films he will not replay. An ex calls and he declines, insisting meetings would be awkward, gruesome and useless. The poem treats memories and intimacy as closed narratives: once he knows the ending, the story is over and he has no appetite for repetition. This stance reflects Bukowski's autobiographical, often cynical and persistent detachment, presenting closure as a deliberate refusal to revive old emotional scenes rather than unresolved longing.
Read Complete AnalysesThe women of the past keep phoning. There was another yesterday arrived from out of state. She wanted to see me. I told her "no." I don't want to see them, I won't see them. It would be awkward gruesome and useless. I know some people who can watch the same movie more than once. Not me. Once I know the plot, once I know the ending whether it's happy or unhappy or just plain dumb, then for me that movie is finished forever and that's why I refuse to let any of my old movies play over and over again for years.
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