Only Pain

Only Pain

'It's only pain,'

she says, appearing

to shrug,

almost hiding

her rigid back,

her drawn white face,

tight mouth.

The truth is, 

she is afraid

of what is worse

than this.

She fears 

it comes soon:

her death.

And that dying

will lacerate her

with pain even more

shriekingly extreme.

She's practising

how to hold

upright back, calm face

against collapse,

against the screams

she won't allow

being heard.

(A fictional character, compounded of various people observed over the years.)

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