YOU SLIP THE NEEDLE

in the vein
like you're getting
into an old pair of slippers
only to find it collapsed
and you searching
for a new one--
what a drag!
You've worked so hard,
been through so much,
only to be betrayed
by your own damn body
and its secret
expiration date.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2019

IT'S A BITTER PILL

to wake-up
sick
and alone
and south
of sixty.
Your chest
hurts
from an impossible
cough;
the phlegm
so thick
it sticks
to the side
of the drain;
your throat
beat-up
& raw;
hot eyes
& hotter
forehead.
Your bones
ache;
you're cold
& hot
& cold
again.
No one
asks
anything
of you
because
no one's
there;
no one
brings
an aspirin,
hot tea,
a kind
word--
mom
is long
dead;
your wife
has long
split;
breasts
have been
milked.
The cow
gives
nothing
but kicks.
Your ass
is exposed.
The doctor
is out
or busy
or needs
a doctor.
His nurse
sleeps
with the
orderly
& he
pushes
his own
pills.

You've arrived
at Coney Island's
nakedness;
the Stillwell Avenue
of the soul.
The train
stalls, the conductor
is a madman.
You take
a deep breath
& leap.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015

THE GHOSTS

in my fingers
summon her
animus;
I straddle
her grave.
I've killed her
enough
to mistake
the living
for the dead.

Who
but the loved
know
how many deaths
it takes
to make
a life
together?

Each shadow,
a poem.
Each poem
a shadow.
Let my loves,
the ones
wielding knives,
& machine guns,
cannons,
& bombs,
even words,
step forward--
I'm ready...
for the blindfold.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015

ELEGY FOR A MUTT

For Fe

The best of us
are mutts--
a littleathis,
a littleathat
--mercifully fucking
each other
past any
resemblances.
Sure,
we grow up thinking
about belonging
to one tribe
or another,
but the real juice,
the real jazz,
is belonging
to all of it.

Mutts
are more beautiful,
and smarter
in & out
of the classroom
than those souls
who've been ironed
stiff
& starched.
Bleached out
of the little blood
they had
to begin with.

Dogs, of course,
are not human--
(thank the gods)
--they're better.
Perhaps,
not as wise
as cats,
but not
as judgmental either.
All they know
is fidelity
& how
to listen
to their senses.

One must learn
from them. They
should train
us
in how to love.
For instance:
those who love you
truly
never leave;
they've only gotten
to where you're going
first,
& are simply waiting
for you
to catch-up
once
again.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2014