I WOULD MAKE FUN

of all things
I understood
little about--
take math
for example:
how 2 & 2
rarely made 4;
or take, for example
progressions; or take
for example
falling objects
at a certain speed;
or take love
for example,
and how it makes a mockery
of rationality.

It's you,
of course,
sitting
in a dim florescent corner,
far away
from the dogs
of Hell
barking
on a wet Surf Avenue street
in Brooklyn
on a cold Coney Island's evening
the only steam rising
from the fish counter
at Nathan's
waiting
for me
to ask you
to dance--
& me
never one to see
straight lines
or negotiate
distances,
stumbled
over a raised
threshold
of chance.

Norman Savage
Greenwich Village, 2019