At first it was fun
Getting paid to stay home
Watching shitty reality TV, and
Documentaries about tiger kings and queens
Working from the dining room in our sweats
Planting flowers and baking sourdough bread
Then, the days turned deadlier, the situation got real
Actual reality was a somber, scary, frustrating deal
Divided by so-called leaders and bad faith actors
How can you stand united together when
Only half of you believe in truths and facts?
Oops, I digress.
It’s easy to do that with a topic like this.
So, there we were, all at home.
Emails became meetings.
Meetings became emails.
And we didn’t have to see anyone we didn’t want to!
And while we were home, working alone,
The introverts thrived
But the extroverts weren’t okay.
I got sadder and sadder, weirder and weirder
Without in-person social interaction,
My battery rarely recharged,
Often feeling like the world was ending in more ways than one
I am extrovert. I wasn’t okay.
My energy had no way out, and so it went inwards
Burning a hole in my chest, heart, and soul
Internally, I imploded.
Externally, I exploded.
The shrapnel barely missed those I cared most about.
I got tired, slept in more.
My beloved took on the early mornings,
and the daytimes and evenings,
and night times and life times…
While I struggled to function as a human being
And spent all of my time trying to remember what patience felt like
I was just so tired,
I needed something to light a fire.
It wasn’t just me
All of my fellow hard Es
Were collectively struggling
We needed connection, whether we knew it or not
So, the days passed, and we put on our masks
Left the house for our tasks
Living for the chance to conversate
It gave us a quick charge,
But it didn’t last long
Being cooped up at home just felt wrong
The introverts thrived
Alone time to recharge was their vibe
But the extroverts weren’t okay.
Still, we all did our best.
Zoom meetings! An excuse to get dressed!
Otherwise, doing work Slacks in sweats
Wondering when it would end
as we all hedged our bets
On just how long we could keep up the pretend.
Because while we were at home, coping alone,
The introverts thrived
But the extroverts weren’t okay.
Written 2021-2023; Put into poem form Oct 12, 2024-Feb 4,2025
