Don’t touch anything
not the doorknob
nor elevator button
or the jagged space
between
your cleaved lungs
wear a mask
to protect others
wear a mask
to hide your cyanotic self
the blue of your lips
the exact hue
of the ocean
we’ve smothered
don’t let the
dead whale’s carcass
float too close
to your bed
the small bits of plastic
inside the remains
will remind you
of dying
with plastic in your body
as if they
were trying to tell
their own story
and the body bags
washing up to shore
were not our own
Connie Post served as Poet Laureate of Livermore, California (2005 to 2009). Her work has appeared in Calyx, One, River Styx, Slipstream, Spoon River Poetry Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, The Slippery Elm, The Pedestal Magazine, and Verse Daily. Her Awards include the 2018 Liakoura Award the 2016 Crab Creek Review Poetry Award and the Caesura award. Her first full length Book, Floodwater, won the Lyrebird Award. Her second full length book, Prime Meridian, was released January 3, 2020; both published by Glass Lyre Press.
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