Renee Wiliams

A Normal Poem

Write a normal poem
you know, one about your dad dying
or unrequited love,
or lusting after your high school sweetheart
that you found online except now he’s twenty years older,
thirty-five pounds overweight, balding, and broke.
Write a normal poem
you know, one that talks about your dreams of going to Tahiti
or Thailand, or Jamaica, or who knows where,
and it will be warm, and tropical, with palm trees,
and mojitos and margaritas with funny little umbrellas in the drinks.
but leave out the part
about how everyone on the cruise came down with Covid
days after you left port.
Write a normal poem
you know, one that most assuredly doesn’t deal
with your dog and his constant issues with food and farting
or maybe one that doesn’t lend itself to the angst
you felt when you had to buy bread at Kroger
and realized that you had to put eight-five cents on your Visa
because you didn’t have enough cash.
Write a normal poem,
you know, something along the lines of your neighbors all loving you
instead of despising you
because you got in the way of their quarter of a million dollar deal
all because you didn’t want a halfway house for juvenile offenders
to be located right next door to your child’s school.
Yes, write a normal poem.

Renee Williams received a Master of Arts and Sciences in English from Ohio University in 1991 and retired from teaching at Hocking College in 2019. Since retiring, she has been working on poetry and photography. Her poem, “Misguided,” was published on the New Verse News site; the Lothlorien Poetry Journal, the Rye Whiskey Review, and the Literary Yard websites have posted her poems. “Use Grief” can be seen in the latest edition of Common Threads by the Ohio Poetry Association.  Alien Buddha Press has published her work in the November zine and Microdoses anthology. Her photography can be seen in this year’s Corolla Wild Horse Fund calendar (September) and on the cover of the 2023 calendar. The winter issue of the New Feathers Anthology has her work on the cover,  and  Mossy Piglet includes her work, as well.