Prompt #8 Not Quite Routine

For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem about either a specific routine or routines in general. Maybe something related to taking out the trash each week or washing the dishes every night--or something more bizarre (yet still a routine).

Not Quite Routine

In the exam room the nurse showed me
each step in the process, her delicate fingers
held the gauze lightly against his shin

as she wrapped and taped, wrapped
and taped, and I thought, I can do this
for him. On the first morning

I fumbled with all the novel packages
and grew hot with embarrassment
over his difficult socks. On the second

day I procrastinated, forgetting it had to be
“before his feet hit the ground.”
When I came in I saw he had been lying

in bed awhile, quietly waiting. It was another
difficult morning, but tomorrow, maybe
it become routine for both of us.

1:18:40 #565