Safe Passage

In town, lines have moved
from street to sidewalk.

Calculations are made
inside our minds,
calibrated for safe passage.

Fear has drawn lines,
paced off each zone.

Yield and Stop bow to trikes,
strollers, skateboards, bikes,
lone runners, brave couples
who hold hands and look away.

Here we walk our dogs
in square patterns that shift
as our paths approach.

There a margin of space,
between safety and danger,
you on one side,
I on the other.

These days of contagion,
we hoard breath, keep our distance.
We step here, but not there,
to walk the lines between.