#metaphorical

Second Spring

[Liquid is sitting at his desk, drawing characters with suggestive designs & sometimes suggestive stories behind them, as well as writing some of them in toxic situations or relationships. The overall cadence behind the characters suggests sexualization or fantasy.]

[A strawman, fabricated for the sake of discussion]: "Hey, stop that! That's (Offensive / insensitive / immoral / uncomfortable / distasteful / immature, etc etc, any of the above, really.) and you're making things worse for someone!"

[Liquid looks up and makes eye contact for a brief moment before looking away to the side. He inhales, and speaks.]: "Anyone who sees this and feels something is a branch, broken from a tree. I am too. None of us may be identical, nearby, cohesive, what have you."

[Liquid, continuing]: "But we all know the feeling of being torn from what we are comfortable with. The difference between that point is where we go from there. You, while you are not real, do follow a process I'm sure many do, especially in the context of this medium. You fashion yourself into an axe, so that you may defend yourself or others. Yet, in doing so, refuse to become anything but sharp."

[Liquid, continuing]: "You know the sting of being broken. You know how it pained you to feel the biting force of another's will. It's inescapable in any context, but especially through a medium where we are nothing but our words to each other. You may be an axe, I will not stop you nor shame you for doing so, only remind you."

[Liquid, continuing]: "I'm reminding you that we are all still branches at our cores. You can choose to lay yourself down at any moment, and, as I have, let yourself be enraptured by this endless ecosystem. Of thoughts and values. Of data points and pathos. Of satire and earnest. Or you can continue your exertions, emboldened by your will and direction."

[Liquid, continuing]: "Either way, if what I do or say displeases you, forgive me as I will forgive you. I did not make any of this to displease people. It's fiction created on spur of the moment inspiration or momentum after the fact."

Stiff,

sweating,

I listen to your

internal mechanics

resetting.

Reverting back to something

I thought I blindly knew

only to find I was not held

delicately by you.

Your heart holds its

own mane.

Similar to a jerking, shying

equus that chooses to remain

untamed and vain.

Your elemental chest

hails my yearning skull.

Submitting to something

keeping me sickly full.

Exhale your tar

somewhere afar