Today's poem is by Ace Boggess

"How Often Do You Feel Out of Place?"
        —online mental-health questionnaire

With people near: behind in a queue at the fast-food hut,
beside me at the urinal, twenty in the coffee shop,
twenty thousand at a rock concert
where men wear disguises & women next to nothing,
at family gatherings (picnics, funerals) —
I stand outside, watching those who act most normal,
least aware. People closest fail to see paralysis
they misinterpret as serenity, indifference.
I hate to seem rude, but could I speak to you first about this?
Maybe a joke will lighten the mood. If you laugh,
we can be friends in grief; forgo, & I exit to the street
to pace & smoke a malodorous cigarette that burns
until this tiresome moment passes, or this Earth.

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Copyright © 2023 Ace Boggess All rights reserved
from Main Street Rag
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission