who is "us"?

Social Distancing

no touching,

6 feet, or more, between us,

hunkering down in our own houses, our own apartments,

by ourselves or with the closest of family,

I watch videos, even from a few weeks or months ago,

and the social rules are glaringly different:

handshakes, hugs, people within a foot or two when talking,

I wonder:

is the shaking of hands

a residual reminder

of who is “us” in evolution?

that we instinctively knew that touch was of trust,

we could be close to another

and not fear betrayal, the knife thrust,

but below that conscious reasoning,

somehow our deeper selves knew 

that closeness allowed contagion,

that touching the other was how we could say

we are the same, we are in this together,

our challenge now is to feel connected to others

in spirit, in sureness of commonality,

for now, we need to hug the closeness in our heart,

and deny the closeness in our bodies,

will we learn fear of the other from the distancing?

or will we feel a solidarity with the other instead?

I want to get back to a world

where we can trust in the handshake,

and where we can open ourselves to the hug.

by Henry H. Walker

April 7, ‘20