It easily stands out as one of the most
Intensely impactful feelings one could experience,
Whether the cause ranges from
A minute mishap or a catastrophic faux pas.

It jump starts within you like a bursting balloon,
Shreds of mixed emotion that ricochet recklessly
Against a struggling facade
Of an unaffected demeanor.

Comparable to a sort of static shock
That catches you off guard,
Sending a wave of fear
Boiling deep within your stomach.

Then radiating and enlarging
With a severity of discomfort that poisons your confidence,
It withers into a pathetic desperation
To hold on to the pride that has abysmally fainted.

You try hopelessly to attain some sort of a grip
And maintain the failing stature,
Searching frantically for the smelling salts in your mental cabinet
So that you could regain your pride’s consciousness.

You’ve run out.
Or maybe you never had any to start out with;
You weren’t prepared
For this.

So it sinks, and it boils,
Greasing the hinges of despair
Until it cunningly evaporates up
Into your throat with devious movement.

You swallow it down
Despite it feeling like shattered glass,
To keep your voice from faltering
And echoing into yet another painful wave.


All of this in a matter of seconds,
Elongating it into what seems
Like a torturous eon of pure
Discomforting vulnerability.

All of this because you
Moronically blurted out the most
Incorrect answer possible
When the teacher chose you as their prey.

All of this because you failed
To step over the lifted chunk of sidewalk
That waited stealthily
For you to trip helplessly over it.

All of this because that
Is what embarrassment thrives for,
What it hungrily and viciously feeds on,
What it creeps impatiently and greedily in the sidelines for.

That is embarrassment.