Four-Fifty-One

The days flip by

like the pages of an encyclopedia:

so many, so quickly;

so thin, so complicated.

 

The pain flickers to life

like a lit match to paper:

the flame consumes

cellulose by phosphorous reaction

turning it to ash.

 

I close my eyes

and squeeze them shut,

until I realize

that I have to keep them wide.

Author's Note

451 degrees Fahrenheit is the temperature at which paper burns, in Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
this poem mostly has to do with not the book, or the song(s) that are slightly based off the book.
pic from http://vanilla-tapes.deviantart.com/art/a-box-of-matches-111258853 by vanilla-tapes on deviantart