what’s legal anymore

poem

I can’t write poems anymore.
I don’t do anything worth writing about.
The legality of Doing Things
is rather sketchy at the moment.
I don’t go on dates, I only started going to bars again
in Fall 2021. I don’t know
what’s allowed and what
isn’t. I didn’t think a “fReE” country
would make courtship and for that matter,
movement
illegal, but there it is and here
we are. We’re In This Together,
the county supervisors said, as they
barred people from earning a living and
forced working-class folks
to bear the brunt of the plague, but
at least they were nice enough
to flatter them — “essential workers,”
great for the ego, puts you in the same tier
as police and nurses. Save a life,
order takeout. We might even
tip you a few bucks
for your trouble.