Other People

Disconcertingly warm

A chair, a table, a handle, a toilet seat

The presence of others

The unwelcome lingering signature of a foreign body heat

Crawling its way in sticky slimy reaching grabbing

Osmosis up and into your skin

Your body

Your self

Disgustingly human

Infesting the pores that breath

Into the fetid air

Left behind by strangers

Killers, molesters

Worse and worse

Down your throat and into your lungs

The stain on your very cells

Screaming to be cleansed

To be isolated

To be alone

Wiping away the infecting nuisance

The unclean pestilence

That would never happen

If they’d only let you be.