Apotheosis

(Album: The Tragedian's Decoupage - 2011)

If I become someone else after this
Trust me it wasn't by accident
And I don't mean my soul will change but
The way I'm perceived will go through changes
The Greeks once said
That in each sunset is a God that competes, some said
With the artist, and if that artist brought us
A painting of the sunset, does that mean he caught him?
And then he's viewed as more than a man is
'Cause he caught a God with a brush and a canvas
And does that take a toll on the painter?
Did he catch a God or did God catch his paint brush?
Either way he's exalted
To an alter by the people, then he's brought to
A blasphemous status to the pastors
Where he becomes a God to the masses

Is it the fate of an artist
To go from a man to be viewed as God is?
I understand Ebenezer, in front of a grave
Wiping the frost off to reveal his name
Can destiny be tamed?
Or are we on tracks like whores or trains
'Cause if my blood doesn't run red
Then it's me being painted as Apollo in your sunset
And the average man can't understand this
They'll view me like Atlantis, or ghosts in their pantry
I'm Poseidon worshipped by the leeches
'Cause flow's violent, getcha seasick
Transformed by the essence of the art
Confused by man as a God
I wonder if Jesus encouraged the distinction
Or if he was a man turned God once we deemed him

So the artist, the painter, the demi-God
Wished he never painted anything he saw
Psychologically it was wearing
Being thought of as a God when his flesh was apparent
So he burned all of his paintings
Heart racing
Lit a match to some gas in the basement
Started pacing, his house engorged
He locked the doors, plopped to the floor, heard the flames roar
They started licking his toes and then his knees
Then the pain ceased, and in the flame there was peace
He took a breath of his humanness, as tears rolled
Down his burnt flesh, gone were his ear lobes
Gone was his nose and then his lips
And his skin dripped off like the roads of a Venice trip
And this was it, his heart was right then
Feeling most human looking nothing like it