For Poetic Asides’ prompt, Normal, I opted to tell it like I see it. As on my haven, Poetic Asides. Amy
Normal Is
Normal is the everyday stuff
Normal is eating McDonald’s for breakfast
and Arby’s for lunch and Pizza Hut for dinner
Normal is going to work at a job you hate
Normal is stopping off for a couple-five drinks
to cool off from the job you hate
Normal is shlepping home and sitting in front of
the TV computer IPad video game
Normal is shopping for crap from China
that used to be made by your neighbor whose job
was outsourced, and he’s about to exhaust his unemployment
Normal is watching silk-suited fresh-water sharks
swimming in the the DC pool on Avenue K
as they rape the economy and hold the future ransom to
a whim, a personal profit, a new McMansion
Normal is ignoring homeless Americans begging
Normal is meth-addict soccer moms, the super-achievers
Normal is Asian kids winning spelling bees and science fairs,
but children of Anglos winning legacy admissions to Ivy League schools
Normal is Black kids, Hispanic kids, all those “little brown ones”
sentenced to the street or “would you like fries with that”
or being coerced into developing a taste for Afghanistan sand
Normal is no longer single moms, but two parents
kissing hello/goodbye in the hall as one goes to sleep
and the other goes to work at WalMart with no health benefits
Normal is skipping worship to work a crossword puzzle or to
see your kids’ soccer games or whatever else the school scheduled
for Sunday morning, thank God Blue Laws were repealed
Normal is one appendectomy in a 14-year-old ends up
with the whole family living in a camper or a car
Normal is abnormal.
The American Dream is no longer the norm.
The American Nightmare has taken charge.
© 2011 Amy Barlow Liberatore/Sharp Little Pencil
Sharp Little Pencil 
Victoria Ceretto-Slotto
Oh ouch. I’m afraid you’ve nailed it.
Sharp Little Pencil
Well, it’s becoming normal for more and more Americans… and it has to improve, or we’ll end up an oligarchy, ruled by 12 or so rich families, including the Koch brothers and their ilk!
Kim Nelson
You speak for many, Amy…
Sharp Little Pencil
Too many, Kim Something’s gotta change, and soon. Thanks, Amy
Sherry Blue Sky
Oh my freaking goddess, this is a song sung straight to my heart, Ms. Amy. Sing it loud! Can you sing it on the White House steps, please?
Sharp Little Pencil
Like I don’t call them everyday asking the prez to stop the stinking military action in Afghanistan?? Really. Get on the phone, people!! Thanks, my fellow goddess!! Amy
booguloo
A sad state of affairs. And most people and politicians are convinced we can legislate our way out of this.
Sharp Little Pencil
We have to PROTEST our way out of this. Both sides. We need to end that damned military action in Afghanistan and stop Bush’s old policies of “nation-building,” something he decried during his first campaign, deriding Clinton, et. al. Thanks, Michael! Amy
Bodhirose
This is sobering and so true, Amy. Our normal has become abnormal–where are we headed from here?!
Gayle
Sharp Little Pencil
BACK to normal, if we get off our butts and on the phone to these bozos from BOTH parties who are screwing us – and we have to bring our own K-Y!!!
dani
it’s difficult to click on “You like this” ~ i love your writing! unfortunately, every word in your post is TOO true. i am fearful of the future and i don’t believe anymore that it is going to get fixed in time.
Sharp Little Pencil
Dani, take heart. As long as there are people willing to march (like here in Madison, on behalf of labor), to make phone calls, to contact Congress and the like, TOGETHER we can make change happen. Just don’t leave it up to the President and let all your complaints end up on Facebook, ’cause that’s spitting into the wind, right?
I know the “I like this” conundrum well… when something hits you in the stomach it’s hard to click… thanks so much. Peace, Amy
vivienne Blake
A shattering collection of things we wish were NOT normal. Bravo, Amy. I chose fantasy for my normal!
Sharp Little Pencil
Oh, to live in fantasy. My manic depression makes that somewhat impractical, being earthbound so much of the time. So good for you that your normal is higher ground! Thanks, Viv, Amy
Tilly Bud
Love your take on this 🙂
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Linda. So does this mean you enjoy being depressed and feeling helpless about world affairs, LOL? (wink) A
Roger Green
if you don’t know it, I recommend to you the song The Trouble with Normal by Bruce Cockburn. I’d find a version, except that the wife and daughter are still in bed.
rog
Sharp Little Pencil
Man, Roger, my husband turned me on to really love Cockburn. Our goal is to see him in concert. We’ve seen Pat Matheny and Lyle Lovett together — Cockburn, Long Tall Marcia Ball, and Peter Himmelmann are all on our dream list. I’ll find it on YouTube. Thanks, Amy
kweewritings
If you could see me, you’d see I was clapping for you. I applaud you for calling it as you see it. I only wish more had the “where-with-all” to do that. Then maybe some of those things could be improved… I know, I’m a dreamer.
Stay strong. And keep looking at what you see.
Thank you,
Kwee
Sharp Little Pencil
You may be a dreamer, “but you’re not the only one,” as John Lennon said. I’m just calling them as I see them. Social justice, like old age, ain’t for sissies. Kwee, all it takes is the resolve to call two representatives of local, state, or national government every week. If we all did that, put it on our calendars, you’d be amazed at the changes we would see.
You can do it. We can do it. together. Stay strong, too. Love, Amy
Victoria Ceretto-Slotto
Amy, in response to your response to my Haiku…No! I would never have posted that if I thought it would keep anyone from writing haiku. We’re poets, after all, and that gives us permission to break the rules, right? I feel terrible, now.
Sharp Little Pencil
NO!!! Don’t feel terrible, please, please. I simply think my haiku are all sort of inconsequential. Your post I took as completely positive! Great input. I will digest and ponder and perhaps create haiku when I have elevated my sense of it a bit.
God, we’re a touchy lot, we poets. Not easily offended ourselves, but SO protective of the feelings of others. We beat ourselves up over this kind of stuff – I know, I’ve done it too. All is well, love rules the day. And whoever said I don’t break rules… now and then… ahem?!! Peace, Amy
kaykuala
It is spot on, exactly as it is happening on the ground. Is it a tragedy unwittingly self imposed by the powers that be, I wonder? You beautifully brought it out like it is!
Sharp Little Pencil
LIfe seems to be cheap when it’s not their own and they are in power. Thanks, Hank. Peace, Amy
Jess P
This is beautifully done.
Normal doesn’t exist, and the type of normal people believe in and strive to achieve is messed up.
Sharp Little Pencil
Amen, Jessica. Normal is, like beauty, in the eye of the beholder who gazes in the mirror and then looks around.
RJ Clarken
Wow. You sure cover a lot of ground in this one poem. I mean that in a good way – a really good way. It rings of an anthem – and should be set to music, to be sung as we march in protest over what’s going on, both globally, nationally and locally.
I think you summed up all the frustrations I feel, in a few short line. (Breathe, breathe…)
Sharp Little Pencil
Hey, if it gets ONE person besides me on the phone to legislators, it will be worth it. How about calling Washington and telling them, “How about ending Afghanistan NOW?” That’s it!
If I ever set this to music and heard it sung, we would all be jumping off buildings out of sheer hopelessness. So I guess I’ll leave the anthem idea alone for now, OK? LOL
Bodhirose
Oh yeah–plenty of K-Y!!
Sharp Little Pencil
LOL. But why can’t they buy it for us?!
Renee Espriu
This must certainly be the “New Normal” I keep hearing about. You are right in the ball park, Amy!
Sharp Little Pencil
Thanks, Renee. How depressing to realize from other bloggers that there is much truth in what I wrote… argh! Amy
Lafemmeroar
I think you just wrote about every human being in the planet! This poem bites of reality.
Sharp Little Pencil
Did you just say my poet BITES?! Man, you ARE a Crazy Chick, LOL. Seriously, thanks, hon, because I try to be personal, and sometimes am lucky enough to strike the universal. Amy
uponthewingsofnight
This is a poem that Miriam and I can relate to, sadly. We both work at jobs we hate when we should be doing what we love to do. Of course, since we both don’t look or act the part, that won’t happen. Regardless, I really liked this one, Amy.