I feel separated from the crowd.
Not just by their doing,
but by my own as well.

The crowd, a pessimist
crys out its hypocrisy.
“Save me, help me.”
The sailors call to eachother
on the same sinking ship.

At the same time,
they try to help or hinder
the others in the crowd,
ignoring that they
can help themselves.

Even I’m
guilty of this,
sometimes.

But as of late I feel,
almost as if,
I’m sitting alone on a lifeboat,
watching the crowd
as it scrambles, screaming
for the ship to stop sinking.

I do not hinder anyone,
but reaching the lifeboat alone,
I don’t know how
to help the others,
still on the sinking ship.

I do not feel the tide
or pull,
as others have around me.
But reaching out to talk
means defying the rollers
that tip and tumble into the boat.

I know that I could leave them,
and drop the lifeboat down.
To leave the crowd behind.
But in doing so,
I’d find myself waterlogged
and sink, alone now,
as the sea swallows my mind.