In a sudden moment when every sound fell quiet
when the world held its breath
I felt emptiness rise inside me like a slow, cold wave
then spread to my arms, my legs, my face
as if something was gently taking pieces of me away
The silence was not peaceful
It was the kind of silence that scares you
the kind that makes you feel
as if you are standing alone in a huge, dark field
with no one around to call your name
like I was trapped in the middle of a winter storm
A deep cold wrapped itself around my bones
a cold that did not come from the air
My breath suddenly felt too heavy
Each time I tried to pull air in
like something inside me was closing the door
My throat tightened until even swallowing felt painful
and my chest rose too fast
as if my heart was trying to escape
before I could understand what was happening
My eyes fixed on one small object
the only thing that stayed still
the only thing that didn’t threaten to disappear
Everything else around it
as if the room was sinking into night
even though the lights were still on
In that moment, I asked myself again
if this was only an earthquake
or if the world was finally breaking open beneath me
It felt like the earth was folding in on itself
closing up like a book reaching its last page
and I was standing right on the crease
where everything meets its end
I imagined the burning center of the earth
like a heart that had been hidden for too long
finally pushing upward in anger
I felt its heat in my mind
like a voice carried by a violent wind
caught between the shaking earth
and the shaking inside me
if this moment was just fear
or the last moment I would ever feel
The silence stayed longer than it should have
And even after the earth stopped moving
stormborns
kaledo-art
gummygunk
izzy806
blakekathryn
