After!
It struck like a hand I could not see,
clamping hard beneath the ribs—
a sudden winter in the chest, just me
driving out every steady thought.
The world shrank to a pin-point breath,
a taut drawn thread so thin
and time slowed, widened, and visions breadth
became a tunnel of dark unknowing
Then sound and vision returned,
release from dark but not relief.
Only the trembling aftermath,
my mind echoing what might have been.
I sat in the quiet that followed,
heart knocking like a late visitor,
air returning in hesitant sips.
Even the room seemed changed,
holding its breath with me.