A clementine peel lounges in the downward slope of the curb, the pavement warming it from below, the sun warming it from above. A heel comes close: a distributed crowd is gathering. The air hums. The molecules hum. The virus hums. The clementine peel absorbs the energy of the crowd, shudders slightly, relaxes. The wind picks up: nervous glances. Makeshift masks. Tentative stances. Even distribution of relational distance. Even distribution of relational fear. A clanging sound from the center of the crowd ripples outward. A heel approaches the clementine peel, grinds its outer edges in the pavement. The clementine peel winces, sighs, lets go.

Katie Schaag is a multimedia artist and writer making work for the page, stage, gallery, screen, and social context. She recently launched a digital erasure poetry platform called The Infinite Woman. Her poems, play scripts, and essays are published in Datableed, Nat. Brut, Imagined Theatres, La Vague, Yes Femmes, and elsewhere, and she performs and exhibits her artwork in galleries, museums, libraries, and theaters. She earned her PhD in English Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a specialization in Performance Studies and Visual Cultures and a minor in Fine Art and Creative Writing. She teaches in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech, where she is at work on a book of experimental scripts at the interstices of poetry and drama.