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

POOR FELIX

The Betty Poems

must be terribly confused:
recently bitten
by a fellow canine
his dog walker walks,
he took
twenty stitches in his leg;
then Felix was kicked
in his chest
by one who he loves
and professes to love him
for being
a dog
and now
has to wear a megaphone
like funnel
which is meant
to prevent him
from biting the shit
out of the stitches
that itches
him to madness.
To suffer all this
on top of the past few weeks
being forced
at his own home
to deal with
and adjust
to a demented, yapping,
incontinent,
pipsqueak
chihuahua.

If there's an ounce of mercy
in your veins, mom,
cook him a steak tonight,
and then get him laid
with the finest
bitch in town.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2013