GOD and ME

She was married
10 years to a guy
she never loved
(and 5 years before that
to an alcoholic
or something),
neither of them
deserved her, my friend
told me.
There’s no God,
he went on,
for someone like her
to be so good
and so unlucky;
she’s heard about you...
wants to meet you...
just don’t act like an asshole.
It’s no act, I said.
Anyway, women have a hard time
being with me for a full day...
let alone for 15
consecutive passes.
Don’t make fun,
he said, she isn’t one
of your ordinary whores.
I kept my mouth shut...
there was no point in debating
“ordinary” as opposed to “virtuous”
so we went.

In less than 2 weeks
it was all over;
she couldn’t stand it
if I closed the door
to the bathroom, let alone
what was left
of my mind; had trouble
with silences
of all sorts; chose
not to “share,” a calling of men
in this new age
of caring.

About a week later
I ran into my former friend;
He had given up
on me
and God.
For once
I was in
good company.


Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 1976