Affliction 8.3.14.

The scar of time often etches itself upon our delicate flesh. Like a sea of memories, it sweeps us away and we are lost under the tide of the past, the present, but to never truly know the future. If we lived in a world of seven thousand sunny years, eventually it would crack our burnt flesh under the harsh light of day. We walk a path we are forced to, and never able to see the many paths adjacent, or opposite of ours. How do you see through the eyes of another person? How do you see through the eyes of the wild?
We can’t.

Passion leaves a trace, like a scar in your forbidden temple. It feels the rain and cries for more, or for the end. It yearns for birth and for destruction. We walk on water until it either elevates us, or drowns us, but until then we are in an eternal limbo, like a polaroid. A fragment of a memory frozen and stolen from time. Thoughts reminiscent. Thoughts stolen.

I walk the line, but not to limbo. I walk it because I know my path and where it will lead me. I know that I am the one that decides to take the staircase to the downward spiral, or the stairway to the zeppelin. My mind is a glass before shattered remains, but my face is stitched together and reveals who I am by those whom have made me. It is a step on pensive waters. This step is forward, but I cannot reveal whether it is up, or down. I can only tell you that it is time to take that path.

Before this, I was something more, but that was all in my head. I’m talented and competitive, but forever newborn when stepping through the doors where my eyes haven’t seen. Who I was isn’t relevant, and who I am is like a newborn. What you see is a polaroid of the past, but you don’t know which words were chosen, the thousand that there are, of which tags and describes the polaroid you see before you. I promise you will soon find out.
Soon.

My opponents will underestimate me, just as I may underestimate them. However, unlike them, I go into the ring knowing that I will win, not because I have anything up my sleeves. I am already within my sleeves and my wrists bleed the pretty colors the paintbrush you use will need. I will win, because I have to. A newborn must struggle to survive, lest it is just a whisper of a future that could have been. A newborn is useless until it takes its first steps, and speaks its first words.
These are my words.
These are my steps.

My mind is the shadow of a rebel, but the heart is an extremist. My mind is the affliction. What ever those men think they are when they step in the ring with me, and whom ever they think I am, they are dreadfully wrong. I am the cataclysm that scars my flesh and broadens your eyes. Look away, and you’ll miss the meteor. Blink, and you’ll still feel its impact. I have been here before, and the results remain the same. In the end, the better man will win, but I am not just a man, I am a star.

You may not believe in the past, but believe that I am the present that will alter your future. The presentation that presently presents itself before you is just a minuscule facet. You think you know who you are, what’s to come. You have no idea.

You may ponder why I ponder the wonders that wander like broken fireflies yonder through my mind, but it is not necessary. You don’t need to think about it yet, kids. I am a better responder, and this time I’m not going to be upfront about it. my opposition's aftermath is both a gift to everyone of you, and a message to all of you. What happens in the ring, and after, well, as they say; all things in due time.

So, I sit in wait in my chair. Things are almost a go, but who’s to know what this show will prove. I’m good at playing the tarot cards in my favor, after all, is a skeptic not the best as tricking the believers? Soon you will know, and soon I will show. It begins with the hunter and a Monday night sacrifice. New blood is the offering to the minds that know.
The match is set. I am ready. There is no going back and after this, you know what I have chosen. I guess my only question will be – what will you choose? What I give you, children of art, is a chance to see a star fall to Earth. I will show you how it is done, and I will show you the world through eyes you’ve never seen in before. I am both the domestic and the wild. I am the predator and the prey; the living and the dead. That said, my eyes see only what my eyes do see. I cannot change what you see, and I cannot change what your mind thinks, only do my best to show what it should. From here, everything is up to you and I have done my part.
This is my present, and you are my future.

Remember these words. Remember that they say a picture is worth a thousand of them. I may only have a handful to give you, but I chose them very carefully, much more, I hope, than the people I contend against coming into this new venue. Only the best and the brightest should be illuminated and hopefully that is what will be reflected within the cascading water beneath my moving feet. I will look down as each step is taken and reflect, even if I have no reflection.
I am among no one, and never was.