There is a silence
all around

a stillness in the storm

a second before the shot

I am struck by the numbness
the momentary nothingness
that invades this moment of motionless

that slips itself like a spectre
into the cold night air

between the sleep and the sheets

between the suffering and the acceptance

and I am upright
alert, awake

attuned to the sound of nothing

it is a subtle shift

as if a warning is awakening
as if something’s been stolen
a thread, a thought,
a part of my person

now forgotten

I am struck by the numbness

a shot in the dark of all this nothingness

All words by Damien B. Donnelly