A Easy Life

You don’t flinch too often Even though I can see the pain Veining its way across your brow In creases of anguish, Much like torture Laying bare all emotions And cutting away all inhibitions With a knife of agonizing severity In the burns that have melted Any thought of comfort You don’t flinch, but repeat The phrase, “I’m hurting” Without so much as a shrinking From the tender, excruciating burn That festers and embitters Creates a horrific honesty Which penetrates even your dreams With angst, worry that it will never Be the same That this pain will never end And you will be left with Only the memory of comfort Peace that comes with the solace Of knowing a pain free existence A effortless life built on simplicity Without difficulty or dread Unproblematic, painless You don’t flinch too often Yet I see you in the mirror When you think I can’t see And there is a cringing squinch A flinch that frees you from pretense The pain brings a taste of strife That most only know in nightmares This nightmare was born In the fire that touched your skin And burned you with its flame Its blaze of burning knives Piercing you again and again With an inferno of agony Fire consumes all doubt of a easy life After seeing a couple of the comments, I realized people were thinking this was about a firefighter, which it isn’t. It was written because my father in law was caught on fire and put out and had to go through the painful recovery process. He was much braver than I could have been – but there isn’t any doubt of the pain he experienced. He is much better now, healed, and glad to have made it through the ordeal.