When the Song Ended

At the time, you couldn't understand what had consumed you the moment. The song had ended. A tear rolled down your face, a clear cold trail on your cheek. Your throat was burning from singing those verses so loudly, playing your heart out on that one song you were so passionate about. The people around you questioned whether or not they should ask you why you were crying the first place. Maybe they thought you were grieving after something, mourning a loss or practicing for some ominous cause. They could have no way to fathom that inside, your soul was burning.

There are very few songs that can catch a person's soul and run with it. You can feel it, not just emotionally but physically. You can hear the bass tremble inside your rib cage, those knives of pain, joy, and awe that the words threw at you as they pierce your lungs like a million shards of glass. Your heart tightens in anticipation for some sort of release, beating to the melody in perfect rhythm when suddenly the whole of it thrusts its arm down your throat and pulls out a piece of your soul, leaving you breathless as these beautiful, ubiquitous harmonies collide—the words finally breaking open your thoughts and emotions and reveal to you something new.

Then it's over. You sit on your bed in silence for a moment, it seemed incomprehensible why you were crying in the first place. After all, it is just music. Music has no muscles, nor eyes, nor skin. Somehow, though, it has a mouth to speak with. It spoke to you through silky tones or ragged beats. It had emotion. It could've been timidly morose or inexplicably furious, but it definitely had emotions just as you or I. And in that moment, after this one song that maybe lasted two or three minutes, you realize that even though it's really just different vibrations strumming on the air it can take its hand and choke you with it's powerful grip.

Once you've pondered over this for a little while, you'll probably play it over a few times more to have that amazing feeling course through your bones. You let it crack you and sift through you, letting it send sparks to light up your mind in an inspiring blast. After a few plays, the explosions become less and less grand, and you go back to your day.

This is what real music feels like. No one can truly describe it; why it hits us so deeply and moves us to tears. Not even you can understand what had consumed you in the moment that the song had ended.