Man On Fire

Have you ever felt that you were on fire on a crowded street, yelling and screaming for someone to help put it out, yet no one noticed?  No one looks in your direction; no one offers water, a blanket to put out the flames, not even a spit to help your suffering.  No matter how much you yell, no matter how high the flames rise, no one notices and you just want the pain of burning to go away, yet are too set on living to lie down and sleep, to resilient to let the fire burn out your will to keep going.  Perhaps, you get a few drops of rain to put out some of the raging inferno engulfing your soon to be corpse, making the entire experience a little bit more bearable, but then the clouds dissipate, the sun soon begins to shine and your burning, unrelenting pain continues.  You plead with those who pass you by to help, to do anything, yet they continue to just walk on by.  You beg God for a hurricane, even a fleeting yet torrential downpour to put out the flames and let you go on living, go on going where ever you were going before the fire started.  But nothing happens.  You burn and you cry and you hope for some miracle to release you, not wanting to lose consciousness and slip into an eternal abyss, but just for the fire to go away.  Yet it burns.  You scream.  People ignore you and walk on by.  You exist only as a man on fire; at least in your own mind... because you’re burning and your pain doesn't exist to the other people on the street.  So, you continue to burn, continue to pray for rain and continue to hope that all will be better soon.  You ever felt like that?