I’m so used to looking at friends up close
and personal every day now… to see
a full body in motion when my shoes
lead me out to toss the trash or empty
the mailbox…or nab a bag from Bite Squad…
seems like a hologram…medium rather
than human…masked phantom floating…like what
Hamlet confronted that haunting night there
at the castle wall…How everything’s changed…
my once-cropped beard seeming Santa present
in summer…my body cells beg me to chance
a shower again…why do I resent
their concern…I can’t even recall spring…
or yesterday…now my screen’s everything…
Roger Armbrust
September 7, 2020
