Normality is the golden grail
promise of a thousand smiles
if I stoop beneath the bar
bend to fit within their mold
they only ask me to embrace
dogma dipped in history
rooted to the cold bedrock
beneath of the warmth of decency.

What's come before is all there is
sanity within their jail
this is the promise made to all
(those outside need not apply)
stick with the like no matter what
purity is the highest goal
with skin color as the test
of whether worth will be beget.

Punch the clock every day
hold down a job to make my way
all that don't are only dregs
living off the common man
holding on to holy dollar
what’s been made is only ours
don’t give it out to others
this is the measure of virtue’s end.

Sing the hymns in unison
lit by windows with color's hues
one true faith all must adore
else be a heathen outside the lord
love only those that do conform
with opposites defining love
the same is seen as greatest sin
abomination that all condemn.

Act your age, your decade's stamp
putting down youth's play toys
to find the somber in all things
content to die before your death
you may ask how this is known
that these are norms they promote
the answer seems to be too sad
the loudest voices are most correct.

Now I know how I should live
though self-hate would be the theme
cloaked in the veil of being one
with a world as the hostile place
considering how they see
the breadth of what could be
I’ll pass on that normal stint
instead walk as an aberrant.

© 2017. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved. 20170821.