I think I always had a closest friend
(surveying back to 1955),
but I don’t take to groups. I comprehend
plurality – communities can thrive –
but I don’t ever flourish in a crowd.
I find the girls too shrill, the boys too rough.
The voices jar – the volume is too loud,
and words are tossed like disregarded stuff.

I lack receptors to appreciate
the good in group dynamics, ecstasy
enhanced with others, harmonies of soul.
Consensus-building seems to generate
in me awareness of stupidity,
and simplified restrictions in control.