Inside These Four Walls

So what is left to say?

Inside these four walls

the music plays.

Dust continues to

gather, on furniture

and shelves.

TV is at the ready

24-7—The news and

weather under

constant change.

Inside these four walls

one dog rests between

my legs, the other curled

up napping in his bed.

Books are arranged side

by side waiting to be read.

The refrigerator hums

in the kitchen, chilling

food enough for a week.

Inside these four walls

lamplight shines an

incandescent yellow glow;

the clock advances

minutes and hours,

night and day.

Alexa, what is the

weather for today?

Inside these four walls,

a safe haven for now,

and here I stay.

For how long,

who can say?

I have nowhere to go,

and no one to see anyway.

Outside a viral pandemic

runs astray.

Inside these four walls,

I am marginally secure,

but far from reassured.

I shelter here in place,

the sword of Damocles

suspended tenuously

overhead. And these

four walls are paper thin.

-30-

Chris Hanch 3-24-2020