Ophidiophobia

Phobia (noun): an extreme or irrational fear or dread of a particular object or circumstance, to the point where it severely restricts your life.

In horrified fascination,
she would stare
at a school library book
featuring a photograph
depicting 'a mutant two-headed snake'.
Chilling revulsion
and existential angst
blew her 14-year old mind.

One body, two heads, two brains
but lacking language or reasoning:
which mind was in charge,
and how would they move
without tearing themselves asunder?

Her fear was rooted in rationality,
but it was a short journey
from fearful disgust
to undisguised terror.

Aside from the healthy fear of snakebites,
the thing which scares her most is their movement
and anything which moves like them.
Glistening, sinuous muscle
undulating, sidewinding and slithering
in serpentine curves,
punctuated by sudden legless surges.

She knows it's irrational
to overreact to their name;
to feel nauseous at the sight of a picture;
to avert her eyes at the movies
and to scream the place down
if she should catch a glimpse
of a moving snake, however briefly.
A Harry Potter fan,
there are huge chunks of the films
she has never seen
and one moment that caused public panic.

By scrolling past pictures,
avoiding news features
and blocking friends who share photos
of their reptilian companions on social media,
she tries her best
to eliminate them
from her waking hours.

And so
they slither
into her nightmares instead.