Please... Watch Me Burn

A painting in a museum titled, Meditation with a warm red circle in the center that has spirals that shoot off from its core like its cutting through the center of your mind with no rhyme or reason; no real pattern.  The abstract spiral sears through your mind and spirit just as it does the painting, triggering emotion and causing chills to cut through your body like bolts of lightning just as it cuts through the coolness of the painting.

A song pulls your mind back to a period in your life.  You remember things that feel as though you saw them in a movie once and couldn't imagine it when you were watching it.  But you remember that it wasn't a movie.  You remember knowing only pain.  Forgetting what love felt like.  Forgetting what it felt to love or be loved.  You remember that the pain was so constant you prayed to feel more pain.  Pain that brought a conclusion.  Enough pain to remind you that you can still feel.  You dreamt of reaching into your chest and tearing your heart out to see it beating in your hands and being the one to stop it, slowly squeezing it until it can't pulse, it can't feed you anymore and you can find peace.

Then you step back look at the painting, listen to the song, and force yourself to remember everything you no longer feel and all the wonderful things you now do.  The painting and the song are now cathartic and you can still see yourself, your old self burning and like a phoenix, rising again from the ashes reborn.

Image is: Fire by Nadyabird