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You are here: Home / other things I have learned / Masks

Masks

April 15, 2021 By Ellen

On the most ordinary of outings

Between the seasonal specials and the dog food

That’s where it happens

Crossing off baked beans and then

You look up and

There is a baby who doesn’t smile back

Why would he?

The woman with the liver-spotted knuckles and the sardines in her trolley

List, tightly clutched

Her varifocals are steamed up

You can’t see any of her old, small face

But her whispy voice says “sorry”

The big man’s rushed lunge for sausages

Probably hungry, but we gasp

Oh, too close.

There’s nowhere to go…

There hasn’t been for a while

Except the supermarket – not a market, not super.

Just somewhere to get food

To stuff the bags for life. French cheese, blueberries from Morocco and Caribbean bananas

Mysterious air miles for stay-at-home days

I wonder, screaming in my head

What have we done?

Faceless. Exist to shuffle the aisles alone in our masks

I hope it was worth it.

Filed Under: other things I have learned, review Tagged With: covid, creative writing, masks, poem, poetry, shops, virus

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