Have you been Scarified?

 

A transmission that opens by treating internal desire ("a fire within you") as something physical. 

It is not just an emotion;

It has the power to literally "flow throughout every sinew" if the individual chooses to "pursue it."

But it's High Stakes 

The transmission introduces a striking paradox with the phrase "A double death to an ordinary life." 

Choosing to follow this fire requires destroying a mundane, safe existence.

However, this destruction is not final. 

It is immediately followed by a "rebirth through exchanged breath," suggesting that intense passion or love brings a completely new, heightened state of being.

But with Permanence and Vulnerability

 The word "Scarified" (meaning to scratch, etch, or cut the skin) implies that once you let this desire in, you are permanently altered.

 The transformation leaves a lasting mark with the Personification of Passion. 

For within the final lines, desire is personified.

 It "saunters in / Naked / Into that very room," portraying it as raw, unashamed, intoxicating ("strange perfume"), and impossible to ignore once it arrives.

Shall we begin? 

Have you been Scarified, Velumbound? 

(A lone voice whispers) 

There's a fire within you all

For we see it

That can flow throughout every sinew

If you pursue it

Desire

A double death to an ordinary life

But a rebirth through exchanged breath

Scarified forever

By its strange perfume

As it saunters in 

Naked

Into that very room

(C)

Copyright John Duffy