Taking Your Place

April 26 2020

There is no eye contact

in line.

Just as we take our place

keeping just the right space between us,

the force field

of social distance

no one needs explained.

Still, we notice.

How people dress themselves.

Who is standing together

and who alone.

The shady-looking guy

you want to keep an eye on,

and the heart-stopping woman

in 3-alarm red.

And listen-in, of course.

Conversational fragments

you can't help but overhear.

And those you hear by halves

when someone takes a call.

A marital spat in public

that would make a teamster blush,

and the two besotted lovers
who nuzzle, fondle, carry on 
as if they were talking in private
or just don't give a damn.

There's adolescent slang

you're not meant to understand,

and a questionably groomed man

muttering to himself.

While an older married couple

are standing hand-in-hand,

in a calm comfortable silence

they wear like well-worn clothes.

Except those times

you take a furtive glance

and your eyes briefly lock.

When you feel your face flush red

and your heart quicken.

And all you can do to explain

is nod your head

force an awkward smile

and sharply turn away.

I suppose this poem has special resonance in this time of social distancing. (I am writing in the midst of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, a note I feel I should include for future readers.) Which would more accurately be called physical distancing. But either way, the social convention of personal space and personal boundaries is powerful, if informal. Even waiting in line, perhaps preoccupied with conversation or looking at a screen, we manage to sort ourselves. And if you do happen to accidentally make eye contact, you feel apologetic, self-conscious, caught out.

I'm told that eavesdropping on one half of phone conversation can be particularly annoying, because it's hard to ignore or tune-out: your brain – that incessantly pattern-seeking human brain – keeps trying to fill in the blanks, complete the unheard half of the exchange. So rather than recede into the background noise, it keeps drawing you back.

Otherwise, I find it odd how some people don't edit themselves in public. They behave as if they're all alone, occupying their sovereign space, even when out in the world. Groups of teenagers, especially; who seem unable to perceive anything beyond the circle of their friends. And, of course, young lovers; who have eyes only for each other, and can easily be excused such indiscretion!