Social Contagion

You soften when I touch you -

bits of you clinging to my fingers

as they come away, such that I

cannot help but touch you, such that

I am you am I am you am I am you am I.

I breathe in your germs, you mine,

succumbing to what ails you - ails me -

ails all of us, together, human system

that we are. Disease binds us together,

shows us that as long as we are vectors,

we have never been alone, will never be

an island but the all-consuming sea.