Shelley Shaver

Social Distance

Stare at your screen. It’s safer than a face —
Your neighbors are mere vectors of disease.
Touch isn’t worth it. Don’t breathe. Freeze in place.
 
In contact with your own kind there’s a trace
Of threat out of the blue you can’t appease.
Stare at your screen. It’s safer than a face.
 
Each dear one close to you is just a case
Of exhalations that infect the breeze.
Touch isn’t worth it. Don’t breathe. Freeze in place.
 
Are you a fool? If not, step back and brace
Yourself. Stay sterile. Each expert agrees:
Stare at your screen. It’s safer than a face.
 
From one another do you seek some grace
That makes the earth your home, like sky and trees?
Touch isn’t worth it. Don’t breathe. Freeze in place.
 
Insist on larger, longer, looming space:
The lure of human warmth is just a tease.
Stare at your screen. It’s safer than a face.
Touch isn’t worth it. Don’t breathe. Freeze in place.

Shelley Shaver was raised in West Texas and currently lives in Northern California.  Her work has appeared previously in The Los Angeles Review of Books and The Seattle Star.  You can see more of her work at dustbowlstory.wordpress.com  and shelleyshaver.blogspot.com.