A terrible revelation

It doesn't matter what those words are -

There is no marker - no red sky warning of the oncoming storm.

You'd be lucky to get any sense of threat, that feeling of looming foreboding that you push aside with a laughing nonchalance.

Then the words drop from a smiling mouth, or a serious face, or a face you can't see, because the words drown out everything else, heavier and more terrible than any thunder.

They careen though your head, they bolt and funnel through the understanding, the truth that you'd carried, sure of its steadiness, until now -

You won't remember the face of the speaker, as they offer condolences, or as they laugh at the look of shock on you own pale face, as your thoughts are cruelly scattered, as they collide, tumble together into a flood of meaningless static and rain.

Now what, a soft thought breaks through the downpour

There are no answers, no step-by-step plan

Even if there are faces around you, comforting hands on shoulders, consoling words, none seem to break through the shower of understanding -

The truth drops into place with the sound of a judge's gavel striking wood, sliding into place with terrible certainty.

There is no way to return to that cloud-light happiness of before -

a moment so far away even though it was only moments ago.