Don’t get me wrong, I like people
once in a while and in moderation,
I like people who are high
in energy and low in calories,
but never more than one or two at a time,
because I am way too easily influenced.
Secretly I know I can’t keep up.
I know they’ll just get bored.
I say things that sound unbelievably lame
ten seconds after I say them, like,
for instance, I am not a people person.
It’s that damned Mercury in Aries.
I am a planet person, a cosmos person,
a double Pisces way too sensitive person,
I am so deep and all-encompassing
that no one ever has a clue.
I am a broken down, wound up, tipped over,
poured out, out of balance, out of sync,
out of money, out of luck, out of time,
out of my mind and into quantum physics
kind of person.
Don’t get me wrong, I love people persons,
I love watching them at parties,
they are walking mysteries, living stories,
gliding effortlessly from one word to the next.
I love parties when I can be an old flyer
on the wall and look around and just listen.
I like to find an empty corner where I can
disappear, and never open my mouth,
except I am usually real close to the snack table.
I’m an indecipherable introvert,
but don’t get me wrong, I got nothing against people.
I grew up in a house full of people,
I think I was just overwhelmed at an early age.
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Nancy Gauquier lives in central coastal California with my companion cat and a slightly feral cat by a bird sanctuary. She did stand-up comedy and poetry slams for a couple years in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Her writing has appeared in many lit mags, including The Camel Saloon, Melancholy Hyperbole, Poems-For-All, Nerve Cowboy, The Short Humour Site (and their anthology, People of Few Words 2) and the Longest Hours anthology.