Day 248, when time stops

It's that minute when you call 911
or the doctor calls with bad news
or you turn on the television to find
a terrorist attack, it's the two a.m.
phone call that you never wanted to get
that's when time stands still
because you can't go back, it does no good
and forward feels false and painful
so you stay wrapped in some bitter truth
cacooned in the safety of a reality that
does not change, a tenacious clinging
to time, a desperate denying of the things
you once knew, that's when time seems
immovable, that's when you feel the death
of something most, when you can't feel
the future, when it becomes a dark stranger
that's when time stands still.