It has finally happened.

After years of obsessing over a poem I read decades ago–a poem that was once recited for my benefit by a boozy hairdresser standing on crumbling veranda in the Middle of Nowhere, Mississippi–I have finally found it in print form.

It wasn’t easy. To start with, I had the title wrong. It wasn’t named “Party Girl” as I recalled, but “Good Time Girl”. P, G: big difference when you’re looking up things alphabetically.

On top of that, it was one of Bukowski’s later poems, meaning that it wasn’t subject to the endless reprinting that some of his early works saw. As far as I can tell, “Good Time Girl” appeared in just two places: the collection entitled War All the Time, and in the September 1987 issue of Interview magazine. I found Interview first.

Like anything remembered from youth, there was a little trepidation when I flipped open the magazine. Would it be as good as I remembered? Or was it like much of Bukowski: entertaining to young “rebels”, but otherwise obvious and dreadful?

I’m happy to report, it still rocks. To me, at least. Hell, I know this bitch! Don’t you?

Good Time Girl
by Charles Bukowski

you had your crowd
out back. .. your people just
sitting there and drinking and
listening to you …
you were competing with
me!
but we danced!
we had a good time!
and god, we laughed too!
you missed Culpepper!
god, Culpepper was funny!
we danced and laughed, that’s what
a party’s for!
you don’t know it, but I went back
there
and I saw you with 3 or 4
people,
god, how somber you all were!
it was like a meeting of the
dead!
well, you tried to compete with me
and you failed!
I’m from the country and we know
how to party!
you think I dance too sexy!
sure I shake my ass!
it feels good!
WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, COVER
ALL THIS WITH A GRANNY DRESS?
I dance close and I follow the man’s
lead, I was always taught to follow
the man’s lead since I was a
little girl!
in the country, that’s natural,
there’s nothing dirty about it!
you’re the one with the dirty
mind!
you’re jealous because you can’t dance.
and you don’t like people because
you’re afraid of them!
I like people and I like parties
and I like to dance!
and so do all my sisters, they’d
drive 2,000 miles to go to a
party!
well, why don’t you say something?
you just sit there drinking and
looking at me!
hey, where the hell are you
going?
you’re always running out the
door and jumping into your car
and driving off!
well, if you don’t want my
pussy
somebody else
will!
You don’t know nothin’ about
parties, you son of a
bitch!

—Interview, September 1987, p.100
also available in Bukowski’s War All the Time, p.114