Normal is an Illusion

My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Writing Prompt #171 “Collage 27”

“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly” is a quote from Charles Addams

collage-27

On the wings of a summer buzz,
a fly alights on a white corona,
wrapped in the acrid aroma
of Queen Anne’s lace.
The sun dapples my legs and face,
reminding me of other summer days.
Time is suspended,
a pretty clock on an ornate chain,
and I wish I could go back again,
this time to a normal childhood,
where I am well-behaved and good,
a child who works hard and doesn’t lie,
when I am the spider not the fly.

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

45 thoughts on “Normal is an Illusion”

  5. I love how you would turn back time. I can’t imagine you being a “normal” child but I can imagine you being a whimsical and a changeling child. I admire how you made this poem rhyme. I admire anyone who can make a poem rhyme.

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  6. A story to be told in those last five lines. I think I should like to be neither the spider nor the fly … perhaps a colorful leaf floating by … I always admire your work, Kim.

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  9. Such whimsey attached to heartfelt probes. So many things seem illusionary–equality, justice, truth. I liked the brevity and rhythm of this.

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  19. It’s a surprising twist — the fly seems so happily intoxicated there on the Queen Anne’s lace (gorgeous image) — lulling the speaker to remember childhood not as it was but it might have been. Odd gift, then, from the fly, blessing the speaker with sympathies for the devil … still we hang there, considering, blessed by the careful constructions and weaving of rhyme.

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  21. Oh Kim, this is a beautiful write! Yes, what we all believe we would likely do differently, if given the chance. But then, cliché as it might sound — we would not be who we are now, and this would not be our life. To embrace another cliché, in the end, we truly must be wary of what we wish for.

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  22. LOVE this! It’s kind of wistful and whimsical at the same time 🙂
    And oh….there is so much in the title. As we age, “normal” changes. I’ve always said, “Normal is simply a setting on a dryer.”

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