JUST LOOKING,

I say
wordlessly
to all the pretty chicks
who look back
but move on.
The parts of my body
necessary
for that type of commerce
can only rent,
but even that
I'm not sure of.
I've been profligate
& foolish
in equal measure,
though that's
easy to say
now.

Thirty-one years ago
I helped my disease
saw-off half my foot.
At that time
I wanted to slow down time
while speeding up my demise.
I had a blood-jet mania
for propulsion & my usual
exits were backed-up
& stalled. Nothing
worked. "What
should I do now?" I asked
my surgeon.
"We all
have just so many steps,"
he replied, "use them
wisely."

And that is why
I still look--
I'm not dead
yet.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015