Some of the most crowded rooms are the loneliest places on earth. This original poem captures the raw, physical experience of social anxiety – the clammy hands, the hollow envy, the desperate wish to disappear even as a glittering crowd swirls around you. Written in vivid, imagistic verse, “In Frame for Tonight” is for anyone who has ever stood in a room full of people and still felt completely unseen.

In Frame for Tonight

by Sarah Shahzad

Anxious as my thoughts paint out a canvas,
Tenuous strokes with each choke,
As I look at my hands, they soak,
Covered in blisters of oak,

As I wept through the saunter,
With no words their daughter says,
No peak at the herds,
Hoarsed around in their glammy gala,

Oh this fiesta, I could've taken a siesta,
Envied with this gluttonous rake over my bulging eyes,
Oh I'm shaken by this phrase,
Starved moons left to rot for this,

I cower with no fight to arise,
I begin to tremble with no cries,
Shots fired but it's only light,
I am in frame for only tonight.