silhouette of woman

Still Life: Vague Affirmations for the Introvert [a poem]

maybe its ok, to slip into the dark bar and settle in the back

among the discarded lip-smudged glasses, maybe i won’t get high

today or intake egregious amounts of CBD to calm my catapulting stomach, maybe

there is nothing wrong with the quiet, possibly, since the eyes always

stick to my skin, like roving centipedes I can feel everyone coming after me

maybe I’d be safer at home, among the dream-soiled pillows and second-skin

blankets, there is strength in the solitude, or is there? my only friend, my pet would know, would they?

I am strong in my sequestered life, still life, as I freeze in the headlights of all

these strangers staring at me.


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