“Reflections On Concrete – An Experiment Original” © Bonnie Matthews Brock

 

The morning after

          Day 73

Like any Monday morning,
when you have to call in
to call out – work an impossibility.
Like the headache, sensitivity to light,
taste in your mouth a cross between
desert sand and cremains,
with a hint of hand-sanitizer.

Big weekend. Unofficial
Beginning of Summer. Drink a lot
of water, take some aspirin
while you try to remember whom
you talked to and how far apart
you were. When did you lose your
mask – before or after the barbeque
– and does it matter?
Was Uncle Ted coughing?

Maybe you’ll be alright, but there
is no pill for this indiscretion, no
real cure for careless. In a few weeks,
this weekend will rival
Spring Break 2020, Mardi Gras
– but for the entire country.

Thank God for easing restrictions,
for reopening, thank God.
The government must be right.
Those folks know everything.
The cure can’t be worse
than the disease.

 

Douglas K Currier has published work in many magazines both in the United States and in South America. He lives with his wife in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Bonnie Matthews Brock is a Florida-based photographer, as well as a school psychologist. Her images have been published in Ibbetson Street Press, The Somerville Times, and Oddball Magazine.