Overread at Table 3: A Dream in the Days of Social Separation

A Dream in the Days of Social Separation

I dream,
but I keep waking up to the world
we now live in.

A world of cautious stares
at the grocery stores,
because we now all have cooties,

cooties that kill,
icky cooties, don't touch them!
Elbow bumps only, and only

for close friends and family,
(even if them), some
of the Trumpistas, no touch!

The dripping bile of
poisonous tongues might spittle
hit our skull, burn through

into our brains, like
acid from the double mouth
of the Alien,

it is hard to know what is
the more deadly,
the virus that cannot be seen,

or the racism that has been
exposed, naked, running
rampant and free like wildfire

across the deforested landscape
of what used to be
purple mountains majesty.

We now have met our neighbors,
but we trust them even less.
Strange how we lived

comfortably together when we
didn't know each other's names.
America, so long in isolation,

is so ill-prepared for social
separation.



MR
2020-0301