Lyric from the song
machinehead from
16 stone by
Bush. this is what it means to me.
A
tourniquet is an emergency treatment for
horrific injuries with
severe haemorrhaging. Basically you take that
horrible lacerated bloody mess and
wrap it up as tight as you can. Pushing it down in on itself and hiding it under
layer after layer of clean white bandages, making sure that nothing can be seen on the
pristine surface of
the horror underneath.
But if something
rips that wound open again down there underneath all those layers, you may start
bleeding through your tourniquet.
The scarlet stain blossoming flower-like across the white surface. Then you know that
something is very very wrong under there somewhere.
Of course
not all wounds are physical. Some of us suffer
emotional trauma -
injuries to the soul. Then maybe you can use a smile as a tourniquet and bind everything up behind a
cheerful countenance. And then you will look fine until you start
bleeding through your tourniquet smile.