Purdah

A poem

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

I am an island within myself
Two meters apart from any other
I walk in splines
Avoiding every other
Half hidden face
My anxious eyes to offer
The soul in my iris questions
Your closeness to me
Farrows on my forehead
Speaks of anxiety of standing in my herd
I find solace in isolation
Because l must
But the animal inside seeks to burst free

I am an island in a bubble
Floating free within a closed room
Where words are spoken
Into a opening void
Between those vaccinated and those not
I am an islands in a bubble in a lattice
Interconnected and intertwined
Apart but conjoined
Floating together in a bigger bubble.

Andrew Okri