Nova

Normal.
As in: "How can we get back to...?"
Like HAL in that space odyssey,
I have to say, "I'm sorry, Dave.
I'm afraid I can't do that."
There is no 'normal' anymore.
The pod bay doors are locked down tight;
we are stuck inside with
lunatics abroad, a still-rampant virus,
with age-old injustice, and anxiety,
free-floating and amplified.
Outside--
a black hole that threatens to swallow
our fragile ship as it navigates
this new universe.

Who is to say that where we end
will be better or worse than
where we were before?
I used to marvel at my grandmothers:
the changes they lived through--
two world-changing wars,
the two-edged swords of
radio, television, internet...
The new 'normal' must have seemed
incredible, unsurvivable, science fictional
upheaval for them.
And yet, they survived
new breakthroughs, old issues, new thought
in the same way we are surviving--
one foot in front of the other,
plodding through uncertainty
(doubtful, distrustful, fearful)
to get to the other side,
to get to a place
we may not recognize at all:
a new world, a new star.