Author S. K. Nicholas

With your perfect pouting face, do you think you can hold off the hand of time from dispensing you like a fly? With those impressive breasts, do you think you can seduce at will and deny the big nothing that lurks at the foot of your bed? Sex won’t save you from obscurity; it will only encourage it. It might sell, and it might even give you company, but those who build their lives around mating rituals grow thinner with every breath. Eaten away inside, they put on a smile, and shake what they’ve got, but there’s nothing there. No reflections. No beauty. Just bodies fading like paintings. Like wallpaper that’s been hanging since before you were born. Cheap glitter. Boredom galore. Haunted by what’s inside, that’s what it boils down to. The weak hide behind flesh. Their souls so delicate, they can’t bring themselves to confront what lurks within. It’s an easy solution, but the cure is only temporary. With age, when others move on to others, you’ll grow cold and alone. It happens all of the time. You won’t be the first, and you won’t be the last. You won’t even be remembered, for the pleasures of the damned are easy to find. They call it love, and maybe they even believe it. The deluded often do.

Picking scabs to feel something in an age of regurgitated love. All mirrors baseless. All supposed intent as meaningless as kissing a ghost. Late into the night, and cut to pieces by self-doubt. Others are happy in their bubbles, but that simply won’t do. Need something of worth. Something to sink your teeth into. The animals won’t dance to anything; they need heart, and a lack of heart is what the world is dying from. Everything is plastic and as hollow as those that pass you by without a second glass. Imagery has replaced integrity because it’s easier to look the part than it is to stand up for what you believe in. All those faithless lovers sinking in quicksand. All those insects obsessed by the rhythms of generation dead. Do yourself a favour, and cut those ties while you can. Stand alone, and stand up for something you believe in. Fight for more than just instant relief, for it will only be temporary, and the universe is long. It stretches wider than that smile you practise only too well. Smile like you mean it, not because it looks good on camera. Do what you do because you feel the need to above all else, not because it’s the only way you’ll get others to pay you attention. One day, our truth will shake this unworthy mob to its core. It’ll happen, just you see.