“Quarantine Diaries,” by David Garyan (Day 40)

Quarantine Diaries – Day 40 April 23rd, 2020

Trento, Italy

Shield

Walls are becoming strangely more comfortable. Like standing next to bodyguards of ignorance, your protection goes far, but only as far as their strength will allow. You’re safe from hostile weather, so feel free to open the window, but only when it’s warm out. The concrete flesh is your friend. Keep walking all over it. You'll move fast enough for no beggar to bother you. Then work even harder— earn the right not to know the problems of city-dwellers. If bodyguards are walls, then gates are military police— checking everyone’s papers. Can you afford the lack of awareness that closed communities sell? Yes, it’s expensive, but what isolation has ever been cheap? When the night comes, rest easy knowing that no one will dare to harass you— not soldiers with guns, not even children with toy guns,

and should sleep overtake them, your bodyguards are still there. Quarantines without pandemics are your rewards, but think less of the problem: What you have is designer brand loneliness— it only goes out when the purse gives permission. Such a small price to pay.

Your greed must be fed, and if that never happens, nature will call with bad news, at least one of these days. All you must do now is sit— stay at home long enough. Then at the end no walls can save you, not even those at the hospital.