EMPIRE OF DIRT

'I hurt myself today,
to see if I still feel.
I focus on the pain,
the only thing that's real.
The needle tears a hole,
the old familiar sting.
Try to kill it all away,
but I remember everything.

What have I become,
my sweetest friend.
Everyone I know goes away in the end.
And you could have it all,
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.

I wear this crown of thorns,
upon my liar's chair.
Full of broken thought,
I cannot repair.
Beneath the stains of time,
the feelings disappear.
You are someone else,
I am still right here.

What have I become,
my sweetest friend.
Everyone I know goes away in the end.
And you can have it all,
my empire of dirt.
I will let you down,
I will make you hurt.

If I could start again,
a million miles away,
I would keep myself,
I would find a way.'

Hurt, by Trent Reznor, 1995.

(Watercolour on paper, AI collaging + digital painting by Rocketgirl)