and when the unseen steals lives,
we hide from the invisible,
cowering from fear --
the fear of the unknown.

padlocks for the thief.

the irony? 
it -- not even a he, not even a she, not even a they, a miserable
it -- merely covers the area of your tiniest blood cell, happily
riding into your territory.

with more ownership than you'd ever have of your own body.

padlocks for the thief?

a paradox. 
snipping us humans of our primal habit of congregation! we
scream, but we'd long snapped it ourselves -- staring endlessly
at metal rectangular boxes with backs hunched and
thousands of meters of emotional distancing.

padlocks for the thief.

the contradiction?
we unlocked this nightmare with our hands,
very hands as tainted as our souls.
with mistakes compounded and smeared upon us.

shush, shush, don't pull out the world map and point -- we're all humans.
as killable as the rest.
we stole from the jungles.
forced nature into cages.

padlocks for the thief.

padlocks for the thief?

padlocks for us thieves.

▪︎▪︎

the role of humanity in creating this crisis.