In the crush of bodies, I find no peace,
every brush against me burns,
begging for release.
Elbows land like warnings I can’t deflect,
each drop of sweat another snare
I didn’t expect.
I shrink smaller with each passing face,
pressed in tight where my heart
can’t find its place.
The noise hammers like a fist of dread,
every pulse a stampede
pounding through my head.
Trapped in a sea of faces, I stand alone,
mapping the exits in zones I’ve never known.
Speaking in tremors, drowned beneath the roar,
lost in the crowd
where isolation cuts me to the core.
I chart each room before I walk inside,
trace every path my racing mind can find.
Every doorway marked, each escape rehearsed,
bracing for the swarm,
always fearing the worst.
I mutter to myself, a quiet battle cry,
build my shell from nothing
while the world floods by.
Alone, untouched, compressed inside the throng,
standing in the middle of a place
I don’t belong.