We’re not the first to experience isolation
Maybe the first to make it into a half-joke.

Quarantine never really made it into our vocabulary before
We still haven’t familiarized ourselves with its definition.

With our smartphones
Beer for delivery
Food brought to our doors
Netflix
Laptops
Whatsapp video calls
Facetime

Our version of forced solitude looks like a novelty
To those who have seen nothing but dark rooms
For months
Recovering from a concussion.

Or for those fighting the pandemic
In a country without high-speed internet
And running water
And good medical care.

Or what about those
Gathered in tents
10 minutes from my own home
Living without even the opportunity
To isolate.

Let me not undermine
The lost wages
The small businesses taking massive hits
The deaths
The confusion
The uncertainty
The anxiety
I feel it in my own chest
Or the jokes
Some of which are funny
Some of which are a sign that
Humour is how we cope
With circumstances beyond our control.

But at the end of another restless day
Working from home in a cozy apartment
I hope I don’t forget that boredom, too, is a luxury.