FINALLY, A HIP KITTY

Wears all black--
skulls & bones stuff;
knows animal rights
& human rights depends
on which jungle you live in.
The only scars she shows
are the words she writes
which are all too often
written in invisible ink.

She curls
into love
like a clenched fist,
releasing trust
like a vagabond hitchhikes--
not because she has to
but because
she must.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2019

THE ONLY THING THIS COUNTRY EVER BIRTHED

was the blues
and it was
a breeched birth at that.
"Kiss my ass,"
the crack
in the myth
announced
as they slid
& gripped
a lifetime
of pain
and song
hanging
from the
low limbs
of Poplar trees,
liquor laughter
& a sweet-milked tit
of secrecy.

Thank God Jews
ain't white.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2016