JEWISH EXPOSURE

Some women
have been shielded
from Jews
their entire lives.
They've come
from the backwaters
of Michigan, Wisconsin,
Mars; somewhere where
no circumcisions never
needed to knit
or unravel.
They've never been
around charming Jews,
tough Jews,
shrewd Jews,
smart Jews
in one chosen package.
They've never been romanced
and seduced and
lied to and
liked it.

I've met
and bedded
many.

I'll get this;
you leave
the tip.

Our eyes caught
and locked.
We knew
what came
next and it didn't
have a name.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2017

THE GIRL

has lived on my block
as long as I have--over
forty years. I watched her
grow into
a woman
creased
around the edges--
not necessarily
a bad thing.
At first
I was drawn
to her stately
gait; she moved
much like a Lipizzaner;
she had a black-haired mane
that flouted and a knowing
irreverence that hinted
and announced. I would not
have been surprised
if trumpeters marched
in front of or behind
her, yet
she was alone
in all her comings
& goings.

I saw her today
as I sat & smoked
& thought about death
in the most kindly of ways:
How it's been good
to keep itself close
but not too close; how
at one time it screamed
& now just hums
a familiar tune.
She pranced
down the block
toward me, her legs
moving like well-timed
Weber carburetors
and bounced
on the balls
of her feet.

I lowered
my sunglasses
and nodded
to her.
She did the same.
How long,
I asked,
have you lived here?
Almost forty-two years,
she answered, slowing
to a stop.
Me, too,
I said.
She smiled. I know,
she said.
I smiled.
March '74.
You're older,
she teased,--May '74.
Norman, I said.
Alice, she replied.

Two lovers,
plotting.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015

CAITLYN'S OUT--

everybody's in:
feminists fetishizing
feminism; photoshop's
hustlers pimping
& primping & cropping;
reality suffering
mass delusions & madness
surfacing with each
"like" & "post"
& "tweet" & tit
distended.

How lovely
to be romanced
by romance
again. Nature knows
better than all
the asshole
philosophers, pundits
of all things social,
like diseases
& plagues & performance
anxiety: all men want
is to see
under the hood. They want
to know:
how she drives?
How she corners?
How she excels
when the foot
is put to her
and pressed hard
around her neck?
They care not one wit
for reality--
and who can blame them--
when illusion
is the gas
that makes them
go.

It's Eve
who graces
the cover.
You can almost
touch her. Come
closer.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015

THE MUSE PLAYS, EVEN ON SUNDAY

WARREN OATES

is a madman.
There are other madmen
like him.
They all
must be asked
the right questions.

HAAGEN--
for Brasz

If there is a God
alive today
He dwells
in the land
of--DAZ.

THINKIN' 'BOUT IT

Going from black & white
Hitchcock Lifeboat Slezak yawn
to a "Yes" TV color
detergent commercial
is a very very
devastating
thing.

UPON LOOKING A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH

Teeth
full of rot.

She did, though,
have expensive tastes--

Me,
for one.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2013