SOCIAL DISTANCING - Poem

 SOCIAL (Un)DISTANCING

(copyright 2020, by Dave Kiffer)


Once this would have been much harder,
There was a time when we sat together
Around a singular table built of bread
And offered our thoughts together, courses
In a menu of strength, not of this abject fear
that we cannot see or touch or taste.

But pre-Pandemic we were already distancing
Preferring keystrokes to hugs, one-way internet
Bromides to the give and take of face to face
Where you couldn't eviscerate another human
Simply to entertain your darkest self,
Simply to feed a bitterly growing abyss.

And that is the rub, to move along with pressure,
But not in a way to cause discontent or anger
In a singular obliteration of humanity
Instead we need to be reciprocal again
We need to rub again and mingle in place
We need to remember our table manners.

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