Heart Felt

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.