Awkwardly Social

To be socially

            awkward
is to be
    existentially
comic: or, bow slightly
while shaking the hand
of an American faux patrician
because their schtick,
like a witch, turns you

into a faux British-butler.
It's something to do with
mountain origins, your pop's
disdain for urbanity, your Cubist
collage of manners and inborn
suspicion that the most

well mannered people might
be serial killers, white supremacists,
that sort of beast, & your
       certainty
that fate set you down
beyond or between customary
                                  circles:
a question of placement. Ec-centric.

You're often outside,
on the pavement, nose to the glass,
staring at a Them, who
    Know What They Are Doing.

hans ostrom 2025