Quickens your heart rate
Shortens your breath
Turns your legs into Jell-O
Grips like chains of bronze
Like a sly vixen waiting to devour you
Chains that are too heavy to lift or move
Tightens your inner core
Freezes your brain and systems into place
Blindfolds you darkly, you’re hardly sure you see
Gives you goosebumps even in summer
Makes your teeth shatter even in spring
It keeps gnawing at your conscience,
breath, mind and soul …
until there’s no sense whatsoever