Every day, without fail

At home, doing fine
new normal, nothing special when
a flash of memory finds me.

Spanish class, every day, without fail
we had our jobs.
Our class starter, closing the door at
12:33, always 12:33, every day, without fail
booming out the word Hola. There was

the job of
making sure everyone had their stuff
lapiz, cuaderno, computadora
every day, without fail,
those 3 words burned into my memory. There was

the tardy tracker with the
black binder, marking lates
I always hated
having to say that
I was the late one, but
at least it was predictable
at least then I could put the word always in a sentence.
Every day, without fail.

On and on we went,
every day, without fail,
after lunch, knowing what to expect when I
walked through the door.
Nothing could stop our jobs, our rituals.
When our teacher was out, we'd do them,
smiling at the sub's face as we went through.

No, nothing could stop them
every day, without fail,
except if we were doing something different
playing a game
watching a movie
you know, that kind of thing
or, well, maybe,

if barely any
of the kids were there.
Only 3, empty room, last day, quiet.
Not being able to focus on
the work we were doing.
The word weird pulsing through our consciousness
like lapiz, cuaderno, computadora used to,
pulsing, pulsing
this new normal
taking over
everyone
so that
my every day, without fail
is only
a memory.