Gretta’s Mirror

Brown eyes glare, fixate on walls
gaining renewed appreciation for
communal cobwebs & scientific
certainty of social justice between
eight legged architects, sticky silk
nets, now hosting mere exoskeletons.

From spiderweb construction sites,
Gretta glances though bay view
windows, noticing squirrels race
around her front porch & mud
swallows build nets under eves,
nature unhindered by quarantines.

Gretta’s black pearl choker highlights
her long neck, not kissed by outsiders
since lockdown began; long bangs now
cropped & shaved, shaped like postage
stamps; her thick, coarse bun emerging
from a smooth, shadowy, feminine skull.

Stark reflections today belie pure beauty
tomorrow; with or without the benefit of
artifice, she’ll mingle among the masses
mouth showing teeth, laughter replacing
pensive pondering, accepting a new normal,
anxiously waiting on Amazon to deliver earrings.