After The Plague

We heal

Photo by Ani Kolleshi on Unsplash

Today in front of my apartment
with my neighbor
another neighbor came out to chat
while this might seem mundane

it is revolutionary

three people and a child
a small community, yes
I could feel tendrils form between us
spreading like tender vines in spring

this is the stuff of legend
song and story

here’s how we save the world: we talk

we battle loneliness
the shuttered world
isolation we carry forward
from the plague years

because in our apartments
a dangerous, insidious fog
crept over us not so long ago

preying on us, so vulnerable
three women who for whatever reason
lived alone, or with a non-verbal child

the miasma still takes us in unguarded moments
we must stay separated
we might die
worst of all kill others