Bukowski's Bad Stomach.

"Awakened one morning sick, retching, phoned down to switchboard lady: "Look, I have a complaint. I wake up sick here every morning and the first thing I've got to look at is that American flag out there. Can't something be done about it?"

She got very pissy-assed and asked if I didn't LIKE the American flag. "Look," I said, "I just told you. I'm sick and it makes me sicker. If that makes you uptight, just forget it's a flag. It's just a matter of the white and red stripes waving in my face. And the stars. I've got a bad stomach."

They didn't take the flag down for me, Carl."

-Living on Luck, Selected Letters 1960s-1970s, Volume 2.