I spend a lot of time studying people.
I focus on a person
read them
and attempt to feel
what they might feel
try to see the world
the way they might
learn their mannerisms
mimic them
become them
in order to understand them.
It can be exhausting
to conjure up
someone else’s feelings
and I often reach my capacity for feeling
those emotions myself.
The mere imagination of them
sucks the life
out of me.
And I still can never be sure
I’m accurate.
I can never guarantee
understanding the person
will improve the relationship between us
or dissever it
because I’m so far off
or
I got too close.