The years of indulgence and over indulgence are evident, but less to the naked eye - self presentation, what you see on the outside is a farce, a mere shell, inside he is vacant, hollow. The character and substance that once was has rotted away, a porcelain veneer is all that remains.
All that keeps him going are the sycophants around him; there is strength in numbers. The strong roots that made him solid have withered, weakened replaced by prosthetics. There is so little left of him, every day now brings new pain, a telling tale of his age and his life, every day he is less able to do the routine mundane activities; something as simple as eating has become an agonising chore.
He had known this day was coming, no life is complete without death. But knowledge of death is not acceptance of it, so he fought with what was left of the fibres of his being - clinging to hope of a reprieve.
And now as the numbness of the anesthesia sets in he bids farewell to his comrades - they have grown old together, they have shared many tales, he has built relationships with all of them over the more than two decades, but today, today is the day he says goodbye to his world. His final curtain call.
And as the painlessly painful departure begins, what is left of his deep seeded roots struggle to hold on under the brute force of this purveyor of his demise. Unwillingly, he leaves this flesh he has called his own, this mandible, which must like many become a fossil. He is remorseful for the anguish which he brought to his gracious host in these last days - perhaps in hindsight, he should have celebrated his decadence more silently; but in his final moments he is beyond reprieve.
Today the ravages of neglect has resulted in his premature termination, his extraction from his world.
Today my pain demanded reprisal; today I demand the shedding of blood, the tearing of flesh the destruction of enamel. No more pain, no more...
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