Masked staff behind plexiglass barriers.
No one in the waiting room.
Someone takes your temperature.
Leads you to another door.
The hygienist is suited up
to handle a hazard.
Gown, gloves, double mask:
all white, except
her teal booties.
She speaks, but you can’t
hear what she’s saying.
You are the contaminant
now. But you’ll be on
your best behavior, as always.
No one needs to feel
threatened here.
When you’re done, she’ll call
for backup. And another attendant
who won’t look over
will escort you out
as fast as possible.
There isn’t much different here
from how you have felt
your entire life.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 24, Issue 1.
Shawn R. Jones is the co-owner of Tailored Tutoring LLC and Kumbaya Academy, Inc. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Womb Rain and A Hole to Breathe. Her work has appeared in Tri-Quarterly, New Ohio Review, River Heron Review, and elsewhere. Her poetry collection, Date of Birth, has won the 2022 Lexi Rudnitsky First Book Prize in Poetry and is forthcoming from Persea Books, 2023. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee and holds an MFA from Rutgers-Camden.
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