Normalcy by Kathy Arnold and Joyce Kassanonkwas Sundheim

Normalcy
by Kathy Arnold

How strange it feels up here upon this wall
with all these rounds and circles

If words be told, I do not think this is the place for us
for you droop and I drip and we are not round at all

This is not a lasting place for us, a residence
with others forever pointing at our unkempt circlets

How strange it feels up here upon this wall
among these bodies of normal circularity

How are you and I to exist, for you droop
and I drip and we are not the same at all

I struggled with the indecision of our resting place
with eyes focused outward I was determined for us to leave

But now, with a glance beyond my own purpose of being
I am startled
for more are like us than are not

Why did I not notice this before that less
are rounds and much more are droops and drips

My gaze at first was clouded, so ignorant was I
of all that we were not and should be

I was so engrossed in your drooping
and my dripping and our lack of rotundity

That I believed rounds were normal
and droops and drips were just you and me

My eyes were so closed to the realities beyond my beliefs
that I did not see the drooping and drippings of life that were just like us

Happy and rewarded am I to see
that so many of us are really made up of the droops and drips of life

Normalcy
by Joyce Kassanonkwas Sundheim
Oil

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Life Enrichment Center writers and artists have published “Poetic Artistry”… a collection of poetry and art! Check back often as we will post a new poem and its corresponding piece of art every day or so throughout April and the beginning of May. Or purchase a copy of the book here!