Xenophobia, by Amory McKeever

Sitting in my favorite chair
searching for a song to sing,

when silently I felt it creep
into everything

Looking at the nails rust

in a foundation fettered,

I could've swore I built this

insane asylum better

Ask myself a question,

were these walls to keep me in?

Or is it that I couldn't stand

being outside of them?

Funny thing about sunshine

it evaporates the rain,

but wearing all that sunblock

exacerbates the pain

Seems everyone is farming

in land they didn't till

Only to find the seeds they planted

never flower for the mill

Those pilgrims all go hungry

starving for attention

Even though their plates are empty

the truth is never mentioned

That mirrors seldom ever show

what they don't want to see

In their quest to keep it real

they became as fake as fake can be

I begin to understand again

what crawled inside my head,

that made me a recluse to some

And to others I was dead

It was a revelation,

and it quickly drove me mad

That everyone's a stranger

xenophobia I had