Love In The Time Of Corona

around nine-thirty in the evening
the setting sun peach melba
masked like a bank robber skiing
i had to be somewhere
a nowhere to be precise
the police did not stop me
wearing a mask it is presumed is only basic good manners now
it means you are a taxpayer
a moving piece of herd-wallpaper
or it means you are a very cunning bank robber
pretending to be a taxpayer blending in endorsing the absurdist theatre
and so i journeyed thus to a faceless building
tilting at facial recognition cameras
the night was young and she was waiting
with a pump-action sanitiser
just like in the movies
or maybe not..

in the distance a couple holding hands
were ambling in my direction
lovers strolling in the eerie emptied streets
they saw me and..a beat..
             elegantly danced a few metres apart from one another
slow-step and a quarter turn each way
an invisible daisy chain stretched between them
about two metres
so that one end pulled near me
and by their air-bubble rosary i was glanced a ming vase ricochet..

and after passing them
i turned to see their concertina contract
then part..then contract
confounding another passing stranger
with or without a mask..