April 1 - Lockdown

 Lockdown - April 1

Day 17:

I ordered a squirt bottle of WD-40 today.
Not that I needed 16 ounces of it delivered,
But mostly so I could squirt a rusty pipe.
From a distance of a couple of feet or so.
And not have to crawl under the cabinet
With a wrench and wrestle with a rusted nut.

That was my excuse! To be honest I suspect I just wanted
To see a stranger's face and hear an unfamiliar voice
At the door when Amazon delivers my stuff,
Or Walmart brings my groceries.
My Sweet Baboo and I are in the kill zone
For this rotten sneaky bastard of a disease.

Not much in our lives has changed for us really though.
We didn't get out much even before the lockdown.
Truth is we were already shopping 4 weeks at a time
And having groceries delivered to our door before.
I think it's the idea that we can't go walkabout
Among the crowds of unfamiliar faces.

Getting out is more about running with the herd,
Than it is that we need to go get some stuff.
We're kind of solitary people anyway and till now
We haven't moved much outside our self-constructed ramparts;
Physically moved beyond the circle of our online family and friends
To go for a romp outside the gates among the other herd beasts.

But we always knew we could if we wanted,
Join the herd down at the Walmart or join the streams
Of human cattle flowing like some kind of pyrocastic flow
Up and down the halls of our local shopping mall.
That we can be temporary members of the human drift,
And then come home and crawl under the covers on our sofa...

                                                                Safely home.

© 2020 by Tom King