Shedding

 Another exoskeleton
Shedding...
Top layer of dead cells
Burning away...
It's relatively painless...
The suffering happens
In day to day life...
Hanging on by the fingernails to ideals and expectations that you know are dead...
Dying...
It's a new world
With new rules...
A phoenix from the ashes metaphor
Seems appropriate here...
I wasn't shielded from the blast...
As much as you can psychologically prepare for the moment of impact with a concussive force,
You're never one hundred percent
Prepared,
Even if you've been there before...
Even if you've felt it all before...
Even the expected
Can surprise you
In how it manifests...
Damage is done in a wild spectrum of ways,
A sunburn so bad it breaks your bones...
Spending time peeling away the dead skin...
Shedding like a snake...
Trying to delicately peel away the largest contiguous sheet of epidermis...
So delicate...
But so satisfying...
Bronzed flesh beneath...
Fresh new skin...
Regardless,
Every seven years
All of the cells in our body
Are replaced by new ones...
So this is a natural occurrence...
Normal changes given the situation...
A natural consequence of temporal beingness...
Waking up...
Waking up inside of the dream...
Time to get a coffeemaker...