WISDOM

Better to simmer
than to sit
& stew.

I walk slower,
but go quicker.

Some
would call that wisdom.
O.K.,
let them.
That's wisdom,
too.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015

SHELF LIFE

You hit sixty
and you start to smell
your expiration date;
and your culture--
if you live
in one of the world's
money jungles
--smells it, too.

If any attention
was paid
to your youth
your youth
has been stamped
and paid for:
Nothing
owed.
It's cruel
and harsh,
I know,
but really
very
unemotional.

I mean,
what can you
really offer?
except wisdom?
and we know
what the world
does with that.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2014