Clean Me Please
Scrub, for 20 seconds
Between each finger,
The webby skin atop
My palm
Don’t forget the crook
Collecting dust
Between my thumb
And the body
Wring my wrist too,
Just in case
Kill the germs
Wash them off
Rid myself
Of sins from last night
My grimy phone screen
The infected air
Hidden
Particles in the air
That suffocate
Our every normal now
Scrub, for 20 seconds
Hope
That I’ll be clean
That we’ll be clean again
Aiko Offner is born and raised in Southern California, and writes mainly poetry and creative nonfiction. She’s been spending her time during quarantine holed up in her room writing away, about things that felt like nothing in a previous era.
Inlandia: A Literary Journey 