for love and for hate
i step on a fly
and offer it to an ant

Part 7

Some cruel joke was being played, but no one was around to blame or plead to for mercy. At the point where he knew he could bear no more, all went black. He choked only once, but then brilliance immediately emerged and his lungs expanded. A jeweled palace of ever-changing beauty lay before him. Sounds came and went, each astonishing form revolutionized itself perpetually and peacefully into oblivion and back into a more beautiful version of itself. A spinning flower hovered overhead. His own form began to fade and the music began to increase in spirit. His astonishment had long given way to itself many times over, maintaining tandem with the rhythm of the waves that rocked his body as they hit. Surrounded by ineffable beauty, all former thoughts emptied completely into oblivion.