Invertebrate

The word we use for cowardice, they
translate to survival.

To be spineless is not to run, but to bend,
curling and uncurling their legs like
contortionists,

turning squares into circles while we
are still fixed at 90 degrees,

spending our lives being told to
sit up straight,
not to slouch,
to fix our hunch.

Octopi arch their bodies backwards
over the lips of cages,
slide through metal bars and
unravel their limbs like card sharks
flipping aces

while we are just begging ours not to break.