Text Prompt

Write a poem exploring the word normal. It could be in the context of pre-pandemic life and the present, how normal needs to be better, or about how normal has always been different within your family. Any interpretation or interaction with the word normal, works as a response to this prompt.

I was never “normal”
and I was made painfully aware of it.

I survived in a household of narcissists.

Eventually it was time to choose,
– end it
or
– diverge

I became an imposter to myself,
shutting down the pathways and patterns that made me different.
I became wrong in my own skin.

I learned the art of people pleasing
and like a light, I drew the abusers and narcissists to me.
A continued symphony of wrongness.

Depression and anxiety came next,
then PTSD,
then an older desire to choose, again.

I am proud to say that I am 31 years old.
I am still here.
I was diagnosed with ADHD.

Nothing was normal,
but,
I finally feel normal. 😀