Alone

It's just lunch, right?

a crowded restaurant

Everyone sounds phony 
when you’re sitting alone 
in the cacophony 
of a restaurant 
where you want
to think thoughts
of your own.

You mind 
your own business
while you mined the crowd
for everyone
else’s business.

Alone, in this
discomfort zone, 
you open up a trendy
social media app
and doom scroll
on your phone.

You silently thank God 
you no longer have
any financial fears,
as mosquitoes of
office talk and gossip
buzz around your ears.

The air’s punctuated
with “dude”, “bro”
and “no way”s, while
their banal activities
ramble on for days.

Talking about problems
without a solution,
the music and chatter
stir up a batter of 
frenzied noise pollution.

And you wonder,
“am I sitting in
a newfangled
mental institution?
Because the people
in this place
makes me doubt
there’ll ever be 
another American revolution.”

So you just go back to 
doom scrolling your phone,
because everyone sounds phony
when you’re sitting alone.