Lisa Haviland

Now Normal

It is

now normal, the way that sea level
has been shaken upside down,
a perfect way for have-nots
to drown.

now normal, the way the deranged order you
to pull yourself up
while they whip you
with those proverbial bootstraps.

now normal, to out an operative,
and, two tired years later, when you are finally
indicted, to be referred to as noble
by the news.

now normal,
to prosecute blow jobs,
but not treason, this
age of absent reason.

now normal,
to look back on Nixon
with something bordering on nostalgia –
but not quite.

now normal, to pretend poor people
are better off in a dome
than a home, though it is
sort of scary – for you, not them.

now normal, to rebuild a Catholic church
by adding a fountain and some
marble flooring, forgetting
the pedophiles you’re supposedly abhorring.

It is now normal.
They don’t even need
to make this stuff up any more –
unless they want to wage official war.