The introvert

Ok, day two of L.C. Schafer's daily prompts and 366 words spot on again. The point was to post the good and the bad regardless, so...

“Don’t look at me”, she said,

And he didn’t.

“Don’t notice me, don’t hear my voice,

I’d melt away if I had a choice.”

And he didn’t look,

And he didn’t hear,

And she faced down a greater fear

Than standing in the light.

A greater fear

Than being spotted walking by

Or thought aloof instead of shy.

She liked to be alone, she thought,

Only her noise in the room,

Her space as private as the womb

To not be buffeted by the whims of others.

To retreat, to burrow, to hold herself.

And yet she watched them passing by,

Into pubs and clubs, emerging high

On time spent resonating with another,

And she went home alone to cry.

For her fear that she would one day die

Alone, unwitnessed, unloved,

Was at war inside her breast

With her fear of turning from her nest.

So she ventured out to the edge of circles

Of vying raucous conversations.

She minded drinks in throbbing places

Filled with joyful, happy faces,

And hers felt tight and false and weary,

And getting home was sweet relief,

And only strengthened her belief

That she was meant to be alone.

And she tried to content herself with that.

Until one day at a social gathering,

She attended after too much badgering,

She saw a man.

She was not looking for a mate,

She did not think it was her fate,

But something about him called to her,

and took her breath away.

She watching him in his conversation,

How he gave his concentration,

And didn't look elsewhere.

How he laughed and looked concerned,

His collar bone, as he turned,

His face, his eyes, his smile.

She wanted to belong.

And yet she said "don't look at me",

And by some strange telepathy,

He didn't.

Until, as the end drew near,

She recalled her greater fear

And asked him if he'd liked his meal,

Then how they shared acquaintance.

And then they talked the night away,

His presence kept the world at bay,

A safe and warming dome.

And when he said "I'd like to see"

She said to him, "please, look at me",

And he became her home.