NORMALOCITY

W O W
Socrates said this around 390 B.C.
WHEN EVERYTHING WAS
N O R M A L
r i g h t. . . ?
N O R M A L
it’s an all day sucker with no taste
it’s a continent that doesn’t exist
it’s a language that can’t be spoken and never understood
it’s a day that never existed and can never be replicated
it’s a sun but never shines
it’s a holiday that’s never celebrated
it’s a now without a before or then
it’s a butterfly in Antarctica
it’s a pig driving a tractor
it’s a prisoner granting clemency to a judge 
it’s and orangutan singing an aria 
it’s a fortune with no value
it’s a nonexistent universal cure
it’s what you and every other individual personally and intimately says it is
it’s a dog who reads books by sleeping on them

N O R M A L O C I T Y
Not a city
Not a state
Not a country
Not a continent 
Not GPSable
Because it’s often misthought
That it’s derived from 
n o r m a l
A devastating 
misunderstood 
misused 
stupid 
dangerous 
Word 
Nitroglycerin On a Roller Coaster
That never found its tracks
Being Human 
Human actually Being
Is hard
Really Hard
Which makes us feel 
Like Chinese algebra 
An equation
Which doesn’t equate
The piece of the puzzle
That never made it into the box
n o r m a l o c I i t y
coming to you at the speed of light
from an unknown source
that’s as real as your first breath 
More uncertain than
Your last one

. . .and yet it’s this
N o R m A l
we seek
we yearn to
O W N
driven on by this sense of
awe
adventure
apprehension
knowing

Maybe the only thing that’s truly normal
is that nothing is normal
. . .it’s neither old or new
or anything we imagine in-between
. . .PANDEMICS
will make us wonder about such things as we question

Normal, right?
As normal as a masked man
waiting for you to read his lips

As Normal as a Pine Tree
growing out of a Pine Tree

Or dying from within a living one
reaching for the sky and some unknown limit

NORMALOCITY
a place that doesn’t exist
we continue to abide. . .