A Wandering Smile

One of the signs outside your door screams “NO VISITORS”
so I find only silence keeping you company.
Delirium stalks you, frail and stranded from your herd,
the vulnerability of illness compounded
by the ball and chain of loneliness and seclusion.

My smile wants to let you know that I am here for you
but it cannot get past my polypropylene mask;
it wanders up and down searching for a way to you
from my eyes to your eyes
                                               through a plane of plastic
from my hand to your hand
                                                  through a layer of latex
buzzing by my vocal cords to reach your empty ears
in small words floating through the filtered air between us.

#NaPoWriMo 3/30