Elizabeth Savage

Self-Portrait as Fine Washables

Do not
                  of heat &
machinery
a world of unread tags
unfortunate rags

Glad Rags

It's freezing
this machinery

without the heat
it can release

woolen &
silken silken
& woolen

fine washables
like backs

& palms
of hands

do not
do not
 
only only
unread tags

of rags forlorn
misfortune &

fancy
impulse

or strategy
open your mouth

I’ll tell you
what you’ve worn

Elizabeth Savage

Elizabeth Savage is author of Idylliad (2015) and Grammar (2012), both from Furniture Press Books. Woman Looking at a Vase of Flowers, a portfolio-chapbook, appears in the 2015 Verse. Recent reviews and articles appear in FIELD, Jacket, and Contemporary Women’s Writing. She is professor of English at Fairmont State University, where she teaches 19th and 20th-century American literature, critical theory, writing, and film. Since 2008, she has served as poetry editor for Kestrel: A Journal of Literature & Art.

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