Bukowski, Charles - Hot Water Music

Chinaski attends the reading by a rival poet, untalented yet wildly popular. One masterpiece proceeds:

“East of the Suez of my heart
begins a buzzing, buzzing, buzzing
sombre still, still sombre
and suddenly Summer comes home
straight on through like a
Quarterback sneak on the one yard line
of my heart!”

Thirty plus stories from 1983. The majority are funny, though often fading at the end like a drunk passing out.
Chances encounters in the cheap bar. Arguments over breakfast. Fistfights in the alley
Winning on the horses, losing everything. Wading from one stinking cesspool of a job to another.
How hard does your own life blow, loser?