Masks

You can read through a list 
of household materials to determine 
what is the best to use for a home-
made mask: cotton from an old T-shirt,
a clean panel from a vacuum cleaner bag; 
a pillow case, a dish towel. In a video,
an abuela shows how she pleats two 
strips of regular paper towel then folds
and staples each end around a rubber band.  
Now, it is possible to live-stream the northern
lights from the safety of your own home. 
Tonight, it is possible to watch a Broadway
musical or attend your sociology class without 
changing out of your pajamas. When the sun 
is out, you can still go for a walk by the river
or ride your bike around the deserted campus. 
For now, you can pick up a coffee, a sandwich  
and fries from your local café, as long as you  
drive up to the pick-up window. The rituals  
of the life that you used to know are changing  
rapidly day by day. City streets are frighteningly 
empty. Or maybe this is what they were meant
to be: stripped of all the layers of what you
used to think of only as busyness and commerce,
now you can see the sky behind the darkened billboards.
You might even see a little more beyond the pollution.