Unavoidable Discomfort

A poem about rejection sensitivity

Photo by on

Blistering extremes
Scorched and frigid
Danger in the fringes
Discomfort all around
Yet
Pain comes to the middle
Caught in the between
Tolerant indifference
Uncertain apathy

If I had the choice
I’d rather feel it all
The cold and the heat
The love and the hate
I’d rather know
Friends and enemies
Than be left wondering
At the insouciance
Behind the reticence

I always find it so interesting when a poem takes on a mind of its own. This week’s #MMPoetryBattle prompt was blistering, and my intention was to talk about temperatures and people’s inconsistencies, much like Katy Perry’s song Hot N Cold. Then it became a focus on the insecurity that comes with feeling like you’re constantly in the middle and left wondering. It’s an exhausting sense of constant hyper-vigilance trying to read the emotions of others to try and save yourself from heartache. All too often, my poems that start off external turn inward, and this was no exception.

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