Steal a Hug - Save a Life.

I am outside my bubble.
I am risking infection.
I am flouting the law.
But I am saving a life.

My best friend’s depression is severe.
(Mine isn’t too shoot hot, either.)
If I left her alone the whole pandemic
she would surely self-destruct.

That is what I am telling myself, anyway,
when I creep down empty streets to her apartment,
knowing I could infect those in my bubble
by sneaking into someone else’s.

I tell my grandmother I cannot see her
because I have to save my friend.
I am gambling on who would die of loneliness first,
senior citizen judged stronger due to practice.

I am protecting my friend, I say, not myself,
even though I am pretty sure that visiting her
is one of the only things keeping me sane.
But is keeping myself sane a selfish thing to do
in the middle of a pandemic?