Instant Trauma

Time’s sequence cleaved, 
An instant extracted, 
A single second,
emerges through fragments.

What surrounds sublimates,
Moments move to mist,
But one point remains–
and strikes me with its fist.

Though brutalized and bloodied, 
I’m aware of impact absorbed,
As time’s hands veil the scale,
All my injuries go ignored.

Behind this looking glass,
Above the clouds, floating,
My eyes, blind to the gravity,
transfix on snapshots, noting…

The brilliance in the taste of copper,
Their eyes wide; lips taught, frowning,
Fractals spun from red and blue,
And that barking voice, counting…

Then this view, rips away too,
Narrowed to black– this I remember,
So stretched, the instant unwinds
As time abandons me altogether.

Though rumored to heal, I find–
These wounds stay with me forever.