Quarantine

Stay home! You are alone. With all due respect, where else would you go? Everything you enjoy has been canceled. Everything else too. It’s not happening! The city is deserted. The cinema square too. Dust covers the popcorn machine. The Italian on the corner isn’t stirring any mascarpone anymore. He wears a mask instead. Someone said he has pre-existing conditions. You can hardly see him without it. And I can’t see you anymore. That really troubles me. I’m going crazy. I would love to be with you, so very much. Life is turned upside down. A tiny little virus is uninvitedly setting new priorities, rendering an established normal absurd, shaking the foundations of society, and even creating an entirely new vocabulary. Small fantasies and lyrical texts capture the mood of a new, fragile everyday life amidst a pandemic, where everyone is at home and many still feel homeless.