Normal Talk

We drink up half a mind
gargle on it like mouthwash
just to spit it back out.
He calls you a tease but so is he,
we are all shaking,
for if thunder is a show, we all have to be;
dark water dribbles over our lips,
scholars call them fallacies,
but we call this normal,
as if normal is safety pins closing
our cleavage and gaps,
as if normal is anything other than a dryer setting,
and here in a world with guises and surmises
vinegar tastes like an 'I don't know'
so they defend to their deaths
thoughts that are only guesses;
I dream of a world where people say what they feel,
where it's okay to not be okay,
because she's not okay, and maybe you aren't either,
so drink me up, drink up all of my mind and all I have to say,
and tell me something real,
even if it's just the silence.

-anna sluder

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