i am american enough
to chase an irrepressible dream 8x round
a stricken television set like an
optimist lunatic loose in hades, a fool's
cheerleader in a bermuda triangle parade
soon i was brought up before a machine
judge -- "god!" i cried "i have no plea
but my own innocence --"
i am american enough
to say had ho chi mihn been americanwhite --
they would find a place for him on mt rushmore
american enough
to say
that if hitler were american he would have
been shot by al capone
american enough
to say --
a jury of hungry hyenas, busier than shitflies
& on their way to a yankee game
paused long enough to chew on the fragile flower
of that cryptic reality
i call my own --
the galley door closed
& i was proclaimed guilty
& sentenced to row a boat across
the great american swamp forever
where the ghosts of giants sleepwalk
thru the thousand-eyed night
of corporate eternity
& walt whitman
plays mahjong
with the mad horseman
Normal's poetry has been published in numerous publications. His first collection, Blood on the Floor was published by Lummox Press in 2000.