"My life has been extraordinary
Blessed and cursed and won
Time heals but I'm forever broken"

I'm discovering that liberation comes at a cost. At first, you can hear it, a distant echo, on the very edge of hearing. You have to stop tapping, calm your heart and strain with all your might to hear it, but it's there, and it comes, slowly, gradually, louder and louder. You wonder what it is. You ask those around you, What's that noise? Can you hear it? They look at you sidelong. They try to listen, but they hear nothing. They raise an eyebrow. A slight smile, they shake their head and walk away, leaving you staring at nothing, just listening. Just listening. Initially it plagues you, what is this noise, but you soon forget about it, its humming becoming a part of you. One day you're pondering something. Then, in the silence, you hear it, that noise, but now it's louder. Your brow furrows, revealing the old worry lines that haven't been apparent for so long. You look around, expecting its source to be evident. You walk to this corner, to that corner, trying to determine its direction, but you soon realize it's all around, within and without. Its crescendo continues in a similar fashion, until suddenly, in the middle of the night, it is upon you, a deafening roar that reverberates in your ears. You still cannot comprehend it though, and its enigma frustrates you to your very core. You put your head down, grumbling. In a dream, an angel comes. She hands you a mirror. You take it uncertainly. You look into it. It is cracked. I wake up, a tear on my cheek.