I Never Knew Normal

Photo: https://shikeith.com/photography

Until it all hit me different,

and we were vexed to distance

but normal for me was never normal

Normal for me meant accepting racial inequity

Normal for me meant a divided American society

Normal for me meant possessing a forced duality,

James Baldwin’s double consciousness

taught to me in school as if it were normal to have to change who you are

while we all reel at what ever else may come

with a feeling inside of anxious excitement,

we must remember what going back to normal means,

back to oppression

back to black bodies in possession

It means white men won’t learn their lesson

It means getting home safely is more than a blessing

It means a proliferation of micro-aggressions

It means the eyes that were opened will just go back to resting.

And what does a new normal mean

a despotic society numb searching for something serene

who holds the gallon of kerosene

and who will pour it on the American dream

I know we hold the match

waiting to strike at any chance

through assimilation we’ve grown attached

all caught up in this digital dance

Never forget what normal meant

to those who never knew normal

but only of normal’s violent dissent.