QUASIMODO IN DRAG

Feet crippled
from mistakes made
before birth;
a girlish giggle
underfoot.
I look
for scarred veins
in the crooks
of elbows--friends?
or foes?
Dreams maintain
a righteousness
of misapprehension.

So many
write me now:
Russia, France, England,
the Ukraine and Canada,
Mexico & even
NYC where
there are more skirts
per square inch
than concrete wombs.
They offer me a bed
& understanding.
They know me,
they tell me.
They flirt
with words.
I flirt
with words.
It is only
writing
when it's being
written,
otherwise
it's madness.

Still,
it's nice
to know
a shower
& coffee
sits somewhere
outside my lair.
While I,
more crippled
than a moment
before, sends
out the bait.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2015