In Extremis Poem by Charl JF Cilliers

It was as if a bullet tore
through his heart and broke the day
into lopsided clouds. He was not sure
whether a strong wind was sweeping him away.

He looked around and saw
the darkness near enough
to touch, as near as the raw
silence of a cough.

Clouds moved across his eyes,
and grass and stone and river
cradled his head. And the sky
coursed through his veins: He shivered
as he snugly drew around him his ultimate disguise.