For Health’s Sake, We Buckle

I have been wanting discussion

With somebody

Anybody.

But we have been muzzled

by  the system

Of containment, confinement

Better leave alone agendas.



For so long we hurried back home.

Shop a little

Talk only when essential.

Wear the damn masks.

Hide feelings, involvement, smiles.

Whole afternoons wasted at game shows

Solitaire cards.

Solitaire everything.



Until a sort of perverse delight

Sets in for ignoring the Race.

Human Race.

And planting oneself in the dark and quiet.

And monotonous and too familiar.



Really all that I want now

Is a talk, and a laugh

And involvement

And a story.

Like we used to.

Memories re-visited.

Remember?



But the eyes shift

And the backs turn.

And nobody dares

To call it rude.

Radio personalities push

For more of the same.