Best Normalized Poems
We judge in others
what we secretly fear within ourselves,
the mirror of hypocrisy polished daily
until it blinds our reason.
I have walked England’s most expensive street,
and as a Black man,
I was clothed in poverty not of my making—
criminal, beggar, illegal—
an identity sewn into me by design,
to dehumanize for the comfort of others,
a madness normalized as truth.
When I sought only direction,
Miss White turned her face,
her lips cracked with scorn:
“I have no money!”
Her eyes had already robbed me of my dignity
before I even spoke.
This is the devil’s philosophy:
that white is holy,
that pale skin is wealth and high class,
that color is a passport to an imaginary heaven.
And thus we measure souls
by the shade of their flesh
instead of the depth of their wisdom.
I have traveled—
Europe, Africa, Asia—
and everywhere the darker the skin,
the heavier the chains of suspicion.
A second-class citizen
in a world built on fear and mirrors.
Tell me—
has your consciousness evolved enough
to sit in judgment over another soul?
If color and money can buy respect,
then respect itself is counterfeit,
and the empire of prejudice
is poorer than the beggar you despise.
Faces of death stare against my raptured skin.
Silently, they watch me in frigid judgment.
I used to run from them in unholy matrimony,
Peeling the sins from my teardrops
Wishing they would
Just go away.
The brown-skinned disease normalized her penetrating,
Gaslit disgust against the smiles,
Against the faith
“YOU HAD IT COMING!”, she resounded in front of my Son…rise.
“All your fault”, the faces of death impolitely declared.
I begged for her abuse to end.
I pleaded for those faces to cease their stares against my coalescing wounds.
I prayed that the stars would let our friendship count to infinity.
But the brown-skinned disease could only count to 5150.
Terms & conditions no longer applied.
How would I ever escape?
How would I ever taste tears of joy again?
How would I supplant the bruises now invested in each heartbeat?
When would I stop apologizing for the harm she caused...?
I stared back at the faces of death.
“Not today!” “Not tomorrow!”
In this decrepit whirlwind of deceit
They smiled back at me, turning the other cheek.
“Stronger than yesterday”, they whispered.
I awoke from my descent into paralysis,
Listening to the gentle clacking of laptops,
The wistful choruses enunciated from the turntable…
…”No easy way out. I won’t back down. I’ll stand my ground.”
For my walls built
By the faces of death
Are meant to climb,
Not to confine
©Tacito
Peace is not a final state
Peace is not a promised land
Peace is a direction
a discipline
a daily
refusal of hate
The sociopath exists
The sadist masks up
The profiteer of suffering
lives next door
The work of peace is not to erase evil
but to build systems strong enough
to contain it
detect it
dismantle it
before it metastasizes
through tissue
Justice is not peace's opposite
it is its prerequisite
The trafficker must be stopped
The abuser must face consequences
The war criminal must be held to account
Peace without justice is not peace
it is surrender
painted flat
Yet justice alone is not enough
Walls crack like old craniums
Locks break like crystal goblets
Surveillance falters like failing hearts
Evil seeps through the smallest crevice
Because evil is not only in men
it lives in systems
in cultures
in the poisoned soil
of neglect
Carl Jung warned us
"The world hangs on a thin thread
and that thread is the psyche of man"
The shooter was once a boy
isolated like an island
radicalized like a slow toxic poison
armed like a walking war machine
The gang member was once a child
who saw violence as his only shield
against a world that showed him
nothing but
its teeth
The abuser was once abused
The soldier was trained to dehumanize
This does not excuse
it explains
Explanation is the first algorithm
toward prevention
before the next boy becomes a bullet
before the next scream is normalized
I have seen what peace without justice becomes
I have sat with its aftermath
I have listened to its brokenness
and it does not heal
it waits
to repeat
They twitch along nerves
still wired to those fever
induced rooms, memories
of faces pressed against
windows, peering in through
curtains with their red eyes,
screams stuck in throats
suffocating to a groan
in gaping mouths.
There were places to hide
when day came around,
a dark cave inside
an iron shed with pale
constellations of old nail holes
feigning starlight overhead.
The world was kept
on the other side
of a peep hole
in the wall of the shed.
And yet there were lovely
flowers blooming
under a bright sun,
the day would carry on
with the ordinary things
that had to be done.
Terror would wear off
and morph into something
else instead, normalized
by the trick
of becoming numb,
or be little more than
a slight disturbance
fizzing in the wiring
of the head.
Besides,
who would understand
when what was there
has now moved
way beyond the vocabulary
of a word weary tongue.
A gardener, I became by chance
a purposeful man with detailed plans
With a thought for each exigency
and a strategy for each contingency
I organized and theorized
I categorized, I normalized
I estimated and resized
and finally, I stabilized
I did this from a calm perspective
all done with the express objective
to prepare a comprehensive list
for mitigating potential risks
I worked, I worried,
I watched in horror
as my garden finally failed to bloom
Where did I fall? Which step was missed?
What miscalculation wrought this doom?
I sat in thought
(and deep in shame)
that what I'd wrought
had somehow failed
What was the task I had not caught?
(Or, was there something else to blame?)
Gantt chart, always at the ready
I began again, to make a plan
Pen in hand, as ever steady
a logical, beast; a thinking man
No change; no matter what I tried
the garden was again in ruins
at wit's end then, I simply sighed
and whistled doleful, mournful tunes
But then, a sunbeam warmly shone
upon my face, right through the pane
as I looked, I saw the rain had gone
that was the point, that I grew sane
I ministered lovingly to my plot
with patience and humility
gratefully accepting what I got
and forgetting old futility
No more planning, no more flailing
I saw the sun and rain as friends
Loving both despite their failings
and thankful for what each one lends
I watched in peace my garden grow
my focus reduced to just a glance,
indebted for what I'd come to know
that all things truly come by chance
New World Order; Psychological Warfare
Split minds, souls at unrest; UFOs or USOs?
Wealth, lost in the wash, fear-mongering media,
indoctrinated control. Listen here, listen there.
Do what you are told. Lost, chock full of filth.
Spiking truth with lies, despised, crying,
"why, oh why?" Crypting minds dime by dime.
Dollars sought, tanked to banks, cashless society,
rank the ranks. Medicated troubles and crooked
ways chronicled day by day - cognitive dissonance.
Demonic subliminals, camera ubiquitous,
oblivious. Rhythm rocker, tossed into sleep
while cryptids creep. War crimes, cries of faith
as the world is hypnotized.
New World Order; Psychological Warfare
Corrupted governments gave a virus and masked
our faces; visions and viles, crimes of the time,
facial recognition. Our world grows darker, ripping
out hearts, and drinking adrenochrome.
Caught and sold in catalogs; Wayfair, beware.
Dead doctors and speakers of truth. Devils lead
the way into caves. Graves are full, ghosts are real.
Androgenous has sex appeal. Agendas creating
slaves digging mountains for golds. Bullets and
bombs thrown by protectors. Secrets burned by
religions, cults normalized like pigeons, spectacles
of the steeple filled with sheeple.
Unseen skies covered with chem trails.
Forced messages leaked through your ears by
HAARP and DARPA. We Trust in those who wind us up.
All we have left is blind.
New World Order; Psychological Warfare
They go the way they come
the way that would always make tears drop
silently, or with a wail
by the air, or by that they left behind
they go the way they come
toothless and helpless; all, but not their heart
strong, willed so promising
without the strength of their hands and feet
illogical, unreal
all the thoughts that thriftily pass their minds
unversed to us, "normalized"
squarely straight to us like in algebra
they go the way they come
without asking, nor with permission
and thus, this blood, this tear
would always flow, like cold rain, drip
today, the next, the rest
they chose to go just how they came
Across the ocean
The abnormal is normalized
There, where perverts lose shame,
Coming out of the closet,
putrid degeneracy seeks renown,
unashamedly, sensuality is stuffed on your throat.
begging for acceptance by law,
innocent kids no longer safe,
a subtle compelling propaganda
men supposedly intelligent,
advocating immoral identity
urging us all to give up our sanity
from toleration to acceptance,
as gradually society degenerates
I stick to my African values.
And stand aloof in awe and amazement
Career has developed huge glands
a surrogate, closing the eyes from loved ones.
Suit and tie on the pages of priority
sucking life away until age loses its lubricant.
Banks hold the candy, but only stored in the oceans
virtual becoming more real than evident links
absorbing trust, kindness and patience to make humanity less.
Power tussle of nations to show who owns the pie
while poverty and greed slips underneath to make it taste sour.
Religion and sectional identity, emerging lords
never voted for, yet mandated to sting.
What matters the most matters less
and what matters less is craved the most,
a lesson unlearned, not until attacked by a virus.
Lockdown necessitates a two-day hold of papa’s hand,
which is a hundred times more than the previous ten years.
Societal red flags normalized for the world to move fast,
family is life, to love is also to live.
When basics are complicated, the world needs a reset
no thanks to affliction, history still is the teacher.
Family, love and happiness, others should remain appendages
this should be on every flag when we are set free.
We need to think twice on medical marijuana
Even if it is opposed in India or Indiana
Let’s make it free, exclusively legalized
For those who need to have their nerves normalized
They like their news delivered intravenously
Nonstop drip of
horrific images pumped straight to the cortex
Ophthalmologically dosed every hour
Raw footage unedited,
fatal tragic scenes
unfiltered
on the television screen
Traumatized survivors giving ghastly, weeping accounts
Macabre absorption byway of visual osmosis
sends them into an euphoric stupor
Bad news junkie getting their daily fix,
strung out wi-fi broadcast junkie
needing another viral hit
Crashes of any kind —
automobile, train or plane
Flesh and metal wreckage
emitting twisted howls of pain and suffering
Shootings flares of societal fireworks:
gang bang related ... code blue police incidents;
chance encounters ill-fated ... sleeper cells blazing discontent
Breaking news carnage is a bonus viewing perk
Bad news is like an addiction,
some gotta have their daily fix
Bad news junkies
need another calm-the-nerves hit
So plunge the telecast syringe
into the veins of the eyeball
Orange Clockwork over time will desensitize
Blood and guts , bullets and tears
splattered and spilled on the sidewalk
Death and violence is so very news normalized
Bad news junkie
love getting their morning mayhem wake up stim
And when getting cranked seeing the evening disasters,
they nod to their self: it’s better you than them
Origination of civilization.
Prussian descendant
Evolution of war.
Regime of terror.
Attitude of hate.
Tortured souls.
Insanity normalized.
Oppressed society.
Nebakaneezer's domain.
Insurgency.
Resistance fighters.
Abandoned hope.
Quagmire of humanity.
Idolized autocrat.
Frenzied martyrs.
Religious persecution.
Excavation of humanity.
Expensive vendettas.
Democratic seedlings planted.
Omniprescent ruler.
Multitude of horrors.
#Hashtag Me Too
#I like you
#me too
#me too woke
#me too just awaken from my sleep
#me too everything not normal it stinks
#me too It started in grade school, when I pulled your hair
#me too back then it was a dare
#me too nobody cared
#me too girls in pain, boys thought it was cute
latter on it was junior high
I spit in your face may have slapped you on your chin
high school comes and I want to come in
touch your buttock, your thigh
trying to be sly(shy??)
while all along
my no training on how to really treat you
your always a lady
now adult hood
Not a piece of meat or wood
Not material thing you can just cut up or muddle
misdeeds covered up
this you see maybe D. Trump
it was simple that Clinton lawyer-ed up in speech he said
I didn't have sexually relationship with that woman
Lewd remarks to full blown assaults
Familiarity to normally
ignore them now it's reverent
social net work all communication even Twitter
Tagging that makes it possible for others
Find my messages with a specific theme or content
Men all our perfectly gentle
NOW
Group topics of discussion together
Negative treatment normalized men behavior
Myriad incidents, was that an assault
You touched me we knew it wrong
Only my God, husband or doctor can touch me there
Men who weren't ejected passing sex scandals ensnaring
Ungodly and uncaring
Women now new move in packs
To keep from being over drinks
People did people done
Some in the name of religion
Self indulge forgiveness
#me too
#me too have you been violated
#me too
#me too money and power means I own you
#me too
#me too De-stigmatize those bad men powerful good guys
Too strong, too righteous to be convicted ha
#me too God be with you
12/01/17
In his nature two halves vied.
Dr Jekyll and beastly Hyde
struggling each to get outside.
Jekyll cooked up a potent brew.
When he drank it: Switcheroo!
What resulted scared him too.
Had he been a smarter doc
he'd have scooted round the block
to the mental health hospital for some electro shock.
They'd have had him analyzed
(Schizoid type, externalized),
then, his psyche normalized.
Traumas would be transitory.
Gone would be all the details so gory
and then loused up would be a nifty story.
In the Future, there will be no rose meadows, a desolate barren hellscape of ecocide normalized. The bleakness of reality
made possible by the dominion of the Earth.
Corporations contaminate the atmosphere we once breathed. They poisoned the air so they could sell gas masks to our children.
Oxygen, water have become luxuries.
Preparing for a death long waiting for us.
A prophecy where the eighth fire
will never be lit. Skin feels feverish before
the sun scorches us all into ashes.