If you are good with crowds of people,
of swarms of homo sapiens you have
to dodge and find your way around,
as if you were at a sporting event
trying to keep from being slammed into
by an oblivious person
or a random shopping cart,
then you’re better than me.

I assiduously try to avoid crowds
and dodging wandering people.
I go shopping later at night when
the swarms roll off to their homes
in their human-driven machines.

And I avoid events where humans
are as thick and as crowded
as sand in arid deserts
or on the shores of vast seas.

It’s not that I have Enochlophobia.
It’s just that I can’t stand
being cramped in spaces
with herds of my kind.
And what a relief it is
when I go shopping late at night
and the ubiquitous crowds
are finally dispersed.

Bob Boyd