the fear emerges in an instant,
comes as skeletal fingers
digging into flesh;
one thousand needles surging beneath the skin.

the crushing weight of terror,
tunnel vision, nightmare scheme,
heart pumping acid, drowning,
collapse of the senses.

time is a failure, a quiet assault
bleeding the day into night.
fragile soul, a fly trapped in amber,  
the dreadful eternity of a moment.