literature

“The customers clean the tables for me,” says the owner of an eatery in Taitung, a southeastern city of Taiwan.

As the virus spreads through most areas of Taiwan, Taitung remains a city that has not yet reported any cases of infection.

My body’s defenses have been penetrated—not by the virus, but by xenobiotics, substances foreign to human bodies. In order to disinfect the public area of our four-floor apartment building, my neighbor has sprayed bleach all over the stairways.