Let Me Burn

Photo by cottonbro studio

Recorded by H. R. Sinclair

There's a violence in how much I want to matter.

How I wake some mornings,
aching with the need to mean SOMETHING,
to leave an imprint on this world.

If I work hard enough,
love fierce enough,
suffer beautifully enough,
maybe the universe will say
YES, YOU!

But significance is a cruel god when
it demands sacrifice and offers nothing.

What if the point isn't to be remembered
but to burn clean while we're here?
To let whatever's wild in us run loose,
consequences be damned?

There's something breaking open inside of me and
I don't know if it's birth or death or both.
But I'm done pretending I don't feel everything at once,
the terrible beauty,
the magnificent futility,
the gorgeous impossibilities,
the heartbreaking absurdity,
the exquisite cruelty,
the devastating wonders.

Let me burn as bright as I can before the dark comes.
Let it be wild. Let it be real.
Let me burn.

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