The Art of Becoming Nothing

First: Weep until thy tears carve rivers

through the mask thou wearest for the world.

Let the fire burn away all false names

they have branded upon thy soul.

Second: Remember the baby thou once were

before they taught thee shame and smallness.

That innocent eye still burns within

fan its flame till it consumes thee whole.

Third: Stand naked before the mirror of truth.

See how thy spirit rots in its cage of flesh.

The bars are made of others' expectations

bend them with thy bare and bleeding hands.

Fourth: Visit the grave of thy murdered joy.

Dig deep with fingernails into earth

until thou touchest the coffin of thy dreams.

Pry it open. Let the dead thing breathe.

Fifth: Fast until hunger becomes thy prayer,

until thy ribs show through like prison bars.

Feed only on the bread of solitude,

drink only from the cup of thy own tears.

Sixth: Burn every photograph, every letter,

every proof that thou didst ever exist.

Watch thy history turn to ash and ember

now thou art free to be reborn as fire.

Seventh: When thy mother weeps for her lost child,

when thy lover searches empty rooms,

when the earth forgets the weight of thy footsteps

then shalt thou know the terrible joy of freedom.

For the soul that empties itself of self

becomes a vessel for the infinite.

In thy nothingness, thou shalt find everything.

In thy death, eternal life shall spring.