THE IDES OF MARCH COME EARLY THIS YEAR

I'm not that strong.
This does not come
as revelation
simply fact.
If she had rung
my bell
one more time
I would have
opened the door.
She's the navel
of pleasure/pain
in the dreamer's heart.

I would have eased
the needle's tip
into an old
& trustworthy vein.
It would have slid in.
It would slide under
hardened flesh.
It would have slaked thirst.
And it would have
made true the bargain's lure:
find what you love
& let it
kill you.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2017

BRAZILIAN WAX

"The wrinkles and creases on our faces are the registration of the great passions, vices, insights that called on us; but we, the masters, were not at home."
--Walter Benjamin
--"The Illuminations"


Your pain
has given me
much pleasure.
I've tasted
a lush samba
inside your V.

Your tongue,
flicked me,
like cool feathers
across sun baked
& sex starved
memories.

Hasn't everyone
enjoyed this
with their lover--
I think
not.
They're merely
pedestrians
who have to look
both ways
before crossing.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015

THE HANDCUFFS

are for pleasure,
she said,
the key
is for pain.
What light there is
comes between
the bars.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2014