281: Bubble Trouble

To be curt, I am an introvert.
I huddle in my bubble
Waiting for a cuddle or if not,
I won’t ask, because asking
For a hug is especially sad –
Especially from those extroverts
Giving free hugs for, well, free.

I don’t like to socialize.
I don’t think it’s lying I just
Sweat when I see so many people
Who want to see me and I think
Well, hello, I’m here, what do you think?
Don’t tell me though, don’t talk to me,
I’ll walk away – I won’t scream;
But when I get close to it I squeak:
“Oops! Be right back! Gotta pee.”

I don’t mind embarrassment like that,
I’m already feeling like a sack of fool,
Like a bag of idiot, like an oversized mole
So big that it’s bigger than my head
And growing out of it a hair that Rapunzel
Wishes she could have had to
Climb out of her tower on.

I don’t envy extroverts, that’s so much energy
That doesn’t go to me, it’s like, radiation.
In the case of a sudden winter freeze
Where most of us die, the extroverts are gonna die first
But of loneliness, introverts will be warming up from the cold
Extroverts go sightseeing for ravines just
To have conversations with their own echoes.

I’m getting married to an extrovert though, so look,
Either way, some sort of balance is struck,
Extroverts go out, introverts have the good luck
To stay home until we moan and grope after realizing
That staying at home really, really sucks, and then
Our bubble pops but not in a good way – we go nuts:
Then our extroverts come home just in time to save
The day and they, with their extra energy spend it
Patching up the holes with conversation anecdotes,
Quips and threads of their day that they’ve left unseen
And brought out only for you to breathe in,
Soothing, your meditation, your conversational hot chocolate.
Now it’s your warmth, your cuddle, your word hug, your snuggle.

When you’re lucky, you have an extrovert who cares enough
Not to drag you out of your bubble, but to cuddle in it,
And to fix it in the case of bubble trouble.

-j. NG