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Poetry: OCD

by S.C. Kleinhans

Sanitized...before your eyes.

Germs...not welcome here.

She lives in total dread

of invisible bacteria.

Hands used to ooze and bleed.

She washed them...100 times a day.

Sometimes even more.

An incessant urge, she wanted to purge.

But the need grew stronger.

Each time at the sink...much longer.

Going insane.

What was wrong with her?

Door checked...again and again.

The stove turned off.

Everything in its place.

Alphabetized...categorized!

She was a slave to her compulsions.

A total revulsion.

The shrink said, "YOU HAVE OCD..."

He handed her a thin crisp pamphlet.

She read some of it...

Not wanting to believe

that she was defective in the head.

The worse fear...the panic attacks.

Striking her entire body.

Everything swirling...almost going black.

Agoraphobia running amok!

She was out of luck.

Ironically, Prozac only made her depressed.

Too stressed to fight back...

Until she discovered it was time

to conquer all her fears.

OCD doesn't haunt her now

quite so closely anymore!


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