Curved Affliction

A poem about scoliosis written for my college Creative Writing class.

Picture by Sarah Blumer for my senior year scoliosis photoshoot

It is painful to look

Yet how can I not?

My eyes are constantly drawn to the ridge

Rising from my lower back

That snakes its way upwards

It has a strange, fearful beauty to it

There is no pain, only fear

The fear twists and coils

Like its serpentine source

Squeezing the life and hope

Out of me

It clamps a hand over my mouth to

Silence my screams and pleas for help

How I scream and fight…

But terror tightens like a noose

Around my neck

My throat has grown hoarse

And resistance has fled my body

I dread the empty expanse before me

Bearing few possibilities

Am I confined to disfiguration?

My aching, grinding bones bitterly

Crying out from my stooped stance

Bowing to my fate?

I am flooded with fear and uncertainty

Threatening to drag me down

Claiming the ultimate victory

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