Six feet of separation

Poems in the time of Corona

Six feet of separation

A sneeze like an enemy aircraft
cracks the sound barrier;

a cough heard round the world
rattles the empty toilet paper aisle.

Shallow breathing as the masked cashier
scans; no eye contact. Firing glances

for signs of others' feverishness,
I retreat from Purgatorium Foods

with paper bags
of milk and soap and oranges,

returning home to scrub for twenty
and click 'join meeting'.

Friends far and near
arrive stacked in the isolating squares

of a virtual Rubik's Cube
resolving across my computer screen.

Six degrees of separation, me to Wuhan.
Six feet of separation, me to you.



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