Sometimes

I sit in the middle of the crowd I was in tonight, and feel completely invisible.

Maybe someone will wave at me as they walk in. No one says goodbye when they walk out. Their backs are toward me as they conduct the business of their clique, the power-brokers celebrating their achievements at someone else's expense.

I find myself slowly curling up to make myself even smaller, even more invisible. Because there is no other way to survive those moments.

And when I am back home, it takes the rest of the evening to unfold myself from the emotional fetal position I have assumed in self-defense.

Some things never change.