30 Day Picture Prompt Challenge

Death

In death
you shed your layers,
like skin needing
to be itched
or scraped
or shredded
off
to let the new skin
show through.
You must peel back the
years, eons, moments.
Scrape away--cells shredding against
the rock, falling bloody to the ground
outside.
Rub against
the sharpened edges of the closed gates
until every bit of your surface
is soft,
unmarred,
and oh so tender.
Then.
Once again, with nails sharpened
from being filed
as all you have done in life
is gouged from your soul,
one last skin
needs to be eviscerated.
These are the cuts and slices
which evoke heart-agony
as you separate yourself from
all which was stellar and good and pure.
For only then
can the pure essence of you
shine out.
It is only that
which will proceed
to the next level.
Essence.
Light.
True
you.

143 words