This new normal? 

We got this 

like any new normal on this journey 

like giving my daughter a shot every night, 

piercing her flesh with the thin metal signifier 

of medical progress since she was 11 months  

old and couldn’t even sit 

like explaining to her, once again, that her shots  

help her grow strong 

like repeating her words as an unobtrusive 

aside, an experienced translator to the in-articulation  

that sometimes spills from her lips 

like waking in the night with the random but 

heart breaking realization that she can never go 

to ‘typical’ summer camp unattended and  

devising ways to secretly imbed a one-on-one 

aid for when she begs to go because her sister,  

who has the luxury of rolling up her sleeping bag and  

stealing away for a week with no concerns 

for prescriptions, diet, injury, or behavior modifications,  

has already left 

like slowing my pace any time we walk together 

like asking for updated prescriptions of albuterol 

when a virus attacks the community and getting 

fresh batteries for her oximeter, along with a dozen  

kid-friendly herbal remedies, because I’ve seen 

her struggle with coughs before and know  

how to prepare, 

like speech therapy on zoom 

These times are calling for us to adapt,  

like we know how to do, 

to dip brushes into paints we’ve never seen before, 

spread them across a canvas that was chosen for us, 

sometimes we get bogged down by the minute details, 

anxiety-ridden and grief-stricken over the tiny flecks  

of paint that have scattered outside our design, 

like teaching math to a child who can’t grasp  

the concept of numbers,  

or patiently answering the same questions because 

the perseveration is a sign of anxiety and 

so are the tears she sheds onto her pillow at night and  

the lack of social continuity has caused her to feel hungrier than  

normal and we know it will always be this way for her 

and we can lament over the spilled droplets of paint, 

or we can paint petals around them and name them  

flowers and then step back and see the painting for  

the masterpiece that it is and  

we  

can  

adapt, 

again,  

as we are asked to do on this journey, 

and we can remember that yes,  

it will change again, this normal won’t be anymore, 

and we will thank its passing and fret the new,  

or vice versa, but we will adapt,  

this new normal, whatever it is, 

we got this