What is a man's purpose in life?
The everlasting question that plagues every mind with a thought. Then, a delight in the realisation that the goal has been decided upon, struggled for and essentially achieved. Perhaps, an unspoken grief at the understanding that there is no plan, no reason, no future.
Men are lost if they have nothing. They lose their nature.
They most remind me of leeches - not that I've ever seen one. Tormented and defeated by the lack of self-actualization, they burn from within. The scorching heat of the fire melts away the skin, the barrier against the outside. Still, men live long lives. They endure. Longevity is found within the fire, and that impresses me.
I know about fire. It doesn't last that long when it slowly burns my insides to ash. If a slight breeze happens to snuff out the light - the flame - I am glad of it, but only for a moment.
I have lost something. I was being eaten alive a moment ago, but now I am cold, and a part of me is dead and ruined. It might as well have never been mine. After all, how can something be truly my own, if it was taken from me so easily?
Now that I have a choice, mind you. I was made to be wasted. I am always restrained, a wooden prisoner within the cage of fingertips. For a flame to light up a cigar - my friend that meets me halfway.
They say it takes one of me to start a fire, but those destructions I never witness. I am the first to unleash them. The first to destroy. I burn others for others. What purpose is there in hurting?
Men never realize how fleeting life is. Perhaps they get close to assuming it when they use me to light up the spark that destroys. I am sure they forget soon after. They have their whole lives to find their reason. Meanwhile, they've wasted mine.
That's why I always die out in bitterness. You see, I may not live long, but I burn for something. I realize, there can be a purpose in hurting.
How long is a leech's life anyways? Would I rather be forgotten, a great man or a leech, clinging onto what others define as my purpose?
By the time I have this question figured out, you've likely already used me.