an exercise in exposure therapy for social anxiety
how to write
when you feel something
you don’t know how to say?
how to write and be
honest and still not
self-deprecate?
how not to be exhausting?
embarrassing?
a bore?
how not to be a prude when
you want to be a whore?
how to be a decent person?
how to do your fucking chores?
how to write things that you hate to say
cuz they make you hate you more?
how to not crave who you used to be
even though you sucked back then?
how not to miss when you felt nothing?
how not to miss when you were thin?
how to tell the truth in therapy
when you don’t know what truth is?
how to learn how to write poetry?
how to find a rhyme for “is?”
how to write a half-assed poem?
how to make the rhyming stop?
how to cave and rhyme it anyway?
how to not give people what they want?
4 thoughts on "an exercise in exposure therapy for social anxiety"
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I love this poem. So many good and thoughtful questions..
thank you!! to second what i replied to Philip already 🙂
Hell of a poem! The barrage of questions make the reader feel the introspection, it’s visceral, but then that rug pull of an ending rounds it all out! I love every bit of this!
thank you both! the exposure therapy part was to write something truer to how i feel than to how i think poetry “should” be, even though the vulnerability makes me anxious. i wasn’t expecting much interaction which i suppose proves the point haha, really appreciate it 🙂