Meeting new people

I enter a room,
Each person I see, stare back,
All their eyes feel like piercing daggers,

There simple greetings of “Hi”
Are sucker punches with powerful blows,
Wilting this delicate wallflower to the point that,
My greetings back are just whispers blown away in the air,

I sit down and try to begin the art of socializing,
I laugh on cue to jokes that aren’t very amusing,
At the same time the seat I’m on feels like needles are jabbing my posterior,
in reality the seat itself, has soft plump cushions with plenty of space to relax,

I guess this is my phantom pain at its peak,
I sit back trying to fixate on what my eyes can see,
Avoiding the illusions my mind is conjuring,

I take a deep breath,
In…then out, in…then out,
My mind seems to have decluttered,
Just enough to read me back a simply but potent message;

“Calm down, all is well”

A smile crosses my face in the fastest of seconds,
My reply back was short;

“I’m good. Just observing that’s all”

Boom!
Together my mind and vision align as if the big bang occurred,
I sit back finally relaxed,
this time just watching what’s on TV,
from time to time I give a passing comment,
slowly conversing with them,
they don’t seem to bad,

The night turns out beautifully.