Ernesto Priego's poem looks at what happens when work moves into the home and the home spills into work. The speaker starts with a small, odd question, whether to wear a mask or not, set against peaceful mornings of birdsong. From there it widens into a reflection on how strange it is to work from home, with private life turned "inside out like a glove."
The speaker seems both amused and uneasy. The poem lists the noises and chores that video calls hide: crying children, flushing toilets, hammering, washing up. People use virtual backgrounds to pretend these things aren't there. The glimpse of a colleague's dancing kids and stressed wife, and the line "the office worker has no clothes," add a wry, slightly exposed feeling.
The ending turns serious. Muting the mic and switching the camera off are also kinds of masks. The final lines suggest we already wear many disguises, even when the real trouble is something other than illness. The mood is thoughtful, ironic, and quietly unsettled.