Have you ever felt those times?
Have you ever been embraced by those moments?
Has the world ever stopped, a moment in amber,
When time stands still, but is surging on faster,
Faster than it has ever moved,
And you are thrown forwards, yet feel no movement?
The room about you is still, motionless,
Empty as the space inside your mind, where
Thoughts live as dying embers, though not quite lifeless,
Retracing steps in cold remembrance,
Consumed by emotions that confuse, that fill,
That engulf all senses,
Leaking warmth into cold recesses.

You find you float adrift,
Separated from all you once knew.

Do you smile or do you cry?
Do you shout, or do you whimper?
Do you hide? Or do you find the weight
Of the world, as it opens all its doors, but closes them,  
Closes you off all at once, too great to bear,
Crushing you steep in regret, sorrow, despair
Relief?

There are times when salty tears are made of
Precious seconds, not torturing eternities.
There are times when smiles beckon agony
Over ostensible peace. There are times when
The two collide so perfectly - puzzle pieces
In the fire - that they are inseparable, and
No one can distinguish their fate,
Where they fit, or where they separate.

In these times, amidst the dying fire,
Cooled by hot tears,
Everything is silent
- but the whispers, but the crying -
But the churning of one thousand
Thoughts within our ears.
A heartbeat of silence, of solace,
serenity, sorrow, sounds
Muffled by a wave of conflict amongst
The crash of crescendos, a turmoil felicity,
A borrowed second, the clashed serendipity.
Have you ever felt those moments,
Sparked by screen, by ink, by fiction?
Unbearably real, a touch, excruciating,
So often unseen, impossibly perfect,
unadulterated, liberating.

Find a happy tear in the pain-twisted eye
And a red, beaten face with salt-stained
Cheeks, holding a dying, amber smile.
Gaze into the open doorway, to the
Rooms that beckon you. Feel the
Crush of the world embrace with all its
Warmth, its loving breath, its awkward grace.
Feel everything stop and weep, to
Smile at perfect ends, to wipe away the
Tears of joy, of sorrow, in a second of
Welling, brimming silence before we sleep.

Have you ever felt this moment?