life carved in stone

Medium

Digital

Artist Notes

© 2011 RC deWinter ~ All Rights Reserved ___________________________________________________________________________________ watching you strip ___________________________________________________________________________________ gazing intently as you expose everything, stripping off layers of guilt you've accrued ‘til finally, down to the flesh and the bone, your long-buried burdens sit plainly in view: on your shoulder a boulder of igneous shame, working its heaviness into your soul, tilting your balance a bit to the right. ___________________________________________________________________________________ a raven of sadness is clutched to your chest, too precious to free but too painful to own; a barbed-wire surcingle girdles your waist. great bloody beads fall, staining your thighs. your seat of desire upholstered in grief, brass nailheads of fear keep it safe from the world. ___________________________________________________________________________________ padlock and chain are embracing your legs, hobbling your steps so you'll never escape. but, even as your eyes hotly gleam, imploring my help in abandoning these, you straightarm my hands as they reach to assist and, dressing once more in your hairshirt divine, turn and walk silently to the next shrine. ~ © 1997, renewed 2011 RC deWinter