To Touch or not to Touch

by Sheila Buchanan.... with apologies To Shakespeare (no apologies allowed Sheila!)

To Touch or not to touch
That is the question
Whether it is more dangerous now
To suffer this life or death
The ups and downs of this outrageous fortune
Or to stay indoors and speak to no one
To listen to news and panic
The heartache of these terrible times
A thousand deadly deaths a day
That flesh becomes: ‘tis a cremation
To die to sleep perchance to dream
For in that sleep
What dreams may come of a future soon
When we move beyond this global strife
We will meet again the Queen says.

The original version from Hamlet:

To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep,
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there's the rub:
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause—there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.

Hamlet W Shakespeare