When the blood clot, stroke, and heart attack occur in the dead of night, to the living they cede an image of tranquil departure to a more serene existence.

Those who choose to depart, through the unforgiving fibers of a noose, generally shock the living. Vertebrae ajar, face as blue as the late gloaming. Images of hateful mobs and corrupt law cloud our judgement of the deceased; their less than flattering mode of departure from material existence unnerves the living.

Labels like suicide accompany death by hanging or via the propulsion of a bullet. A hallow barrel sends the hot led of certitude through flesh. In the residue of a once human form lies a message of hope for a different eternity. The living can only turn a blind eye to this progressive show of Harri Kari.

The martyr's death is praised for century after millennium. Though theirs is generally at the hands of the institution oppressor: decapitation, Crucifixion, drawing, quartering, the firing squad, the gallows, the burnt stake, the electric chair, the gas chamber.

Self immolation stands at the perimeter of existence and death. A final statement to a world that fetishizes beauty. As the skin roasts, the joints coalesce, and flames consume all that is organic; an event unfolds. There is a release from fascism, oppression, totalitarianism, ignorance, and hate. A cathartic absolution from materialism like no other.

The cycle perpetuates its existence; Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust.