"How Often Do You Feel Out of Place?"

        —online mental-health questionnaire

--Ace Boggess

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.