Flash

 

In the space of the flash

We see them all

Wrenching open their mouths

Clutching the sides of their faces. Revealing the whites of their eyes, streaked with freshly broken blood vessels. Straightening up to their apex or folding into themselves.

Movements in minor shuffling and jagged step patterns become

Falling all over themselves.

Dissolving into the light

Absent a whisper

Or the clicking of a clock’s second hand.

Or the screams of every molecule in existence 

while being blended in the whirring jaws of a Vita-mix.

Not a word or a speck of noise

Then the light gives way in a cascading wave of sharp contrast

Until it passes

And the only noise left

is the color seeping back into the frame.