Poem: "From This Intolerable Overload of Feeling"

This poem is spillover from the November 6, 2018 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from Soupshue. It also fills the "impaired consent" square in my 11-5-18 card for the Family Ties Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Officer Pink thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains some intense topics. Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers. This is the one where Justin accidentally spooks Turq and it turns into a significant problem. It includes references to panhandling, inadvertent triggering of a trauma survivor by a police officer, hypervigilance, touch aversion, panic reaction, superpower control issues, self-induced injury to avoid harming someone else, impaired consent, negotiating contact and ways to help, explanation of past trauma and present effects, random medic stopping to make sure the police aren't pounding someone in an alley, apology made awkward by traumatic reaction, difficulty accepting help after trauma, watching someone else struggle while resisting the temptation for helpiness, self-recrimination, and other challenges. If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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In Which Cliques Are Actually Good For Something

This is the first example I've found where cliques are actually good for something: minimizing contagion.  Finally, a sound evolutionary reason for behavior that, while gratifying to popular people, is horrible for society as a whole. 

Hominins and Extinctions

 ... may not be as closely linked as thought.  I'm glad someone actually did some research on this topic, instead of just assuming it.  In my observation, humans often act like an opportunistic infection.  They may not cause extinction outright, although they certainly can, but they are very prone to helping along the process for species already stressed by something else such as climate change.