Rhyming Poem
from "All's Normal Here"; 1985
Rhyming Poem - meaning Summary
Refrain of Weary Decline
Bukowski's short poem sketches a bleak, sardonic nighttime world where music, sex work and celebrity collapse into a repeated refrain: "the whores go down." Vignettes of refusals and petty cruelty—bar closing times, a lover's dismissal, joking racial fractions—are delivered with weary humor and resignation. The chorus’s repetition creates a sense of inevitable decline and emotional stasis, suggesting lives pared to recurring scenes of degradation and missed connection.
Read Complete AnalysesThe goldfish sing all night with guitars, And the whores go down with the stars, The whores go down with the stars. "I'm sorry, sir, we close at 4:30, Besides your mother's neck is dirty," And the whores go down with the etc., The whores go down with the etc. "I'm sorry, Jack, you can't come back, I've fallen in love with another sap, 3/4 Italian and 1/2 Jap," And the whores go, The whores go, Etc.
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