Walking in Public

Without fail,

I am observed.

Surveyed superficially,

as the silver scalpel of those around me

begin to probe my soul.

Peering out through their windows,

with curiosity both

childlike and cautionary,

I avert my gaze

to release my blinds,

covering an essence

that renders opaque after a single breath.

Inhaling, exhaling

exercising animalistic autonomy

enclosed in a pen of flesh.

I take residence in myself

and in others,

swallowed and asphyxiated

under the soaked duvet

of self-consciousness.

I've chosen to be selectively permeable,

conceivably I’ve convinced myself it was of my own volition.

Denying my admittance,

naively neglecting

the traces of myself that stain the window panes around me.