Have You Tried Exercising?

They said it like a cure,

as if sweat could straighten bone,

as if willpower could uncoil pain.

But this spine tells a different story,

years of quiet wars beneath the skin,

vertebrae and bones locking with time,

a body learning the language of pain.

I have tried everything,

movement, stillness, surrender,

and still it never leaves.

This is not weakness or refusal,

but the shape of endurance,

the body’s quiet defiance,

the art of staying alive.

Poem and Artwork by Rae Sabine

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