A Billion Burning Dreams

to taste the char of former embodiment; to choke

on plumes of smoke. The tortuous tumult of spontaneous combustion, internal organs blooming fire petals. The whisper of painful secrets through gasping dragon’s breath. The cataclysm as volcanic veins flay outward, magmatic blood projected through thermodynamic pores. Seismic pulse frantic. The inferno of a swan song silenced. No, we cannot know the cruelty of self-actualizing self-destruction that brings an afterlife before. The plight of pyrotechnic personhood, black powder dust-to-dust. A Viking funeral for a birthday. To rise from the ashes means the choiceless murder of the self, to be one’s own mourner,

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