Remember that time
when hugs were taboo?
A touch to be feared
But plastic embraced.
That upside down time
when 1.5m was imagined in so many ways
even two penguins lying down.
Behind these cute images
an invisible wall of distance
that reshaped social bonds
and left me yearning for the simple
comfort of a warm hug.
So what did you miss in those days?
Eating out, nights on the town or watching
teams playing contact sports
and traveling across state borders.
Why did we rush back to these
and not the simple wellbeing boost of human touch?
I guess real hugs can’t be packaged and sold
and don’t keep us mindlessly entertained
while the rich dream up ways to become richer.
So there we have it
crazy wonky as those days were
Capitalism and the Separate Individual remained
woven so tightly into our impoverished beings
that it would take more than
one little epidemic
to unseat the real killer of us all.
Image courtesy Chiaralily (Creative Commons)
Of This Earth 