Snatched Away (A Dramatic Monologue) Poem by ashok jadhav

(The stage is dimly lit, a single spotlight focuses on a figure standing alone. The room is empty except for a chair turned over. The speaker's voice is quiet at first, trembling, then rises in anguish.)
It happened so quickly—
so suddenly,
that the mind refuses to believe it.
One moment, life was ordinary.
The sun rose.
The air was familiar.
Laughter echoed in halls we called home.
And in the next moment…
everything was gone.
Snatched away.
(He raises his hands, as if trying to hold onto something invisible.)
How cruel it is,
how merciless,
when what you love
is ripped from your grasp
before you even have the chance to hold it tight.
I remember the feel of it…
the warmth, the certainty, the heartbeat
that you trust will never falter.
And then—a void.
A silence so deep it presses against the chest.
A vacuum where presence once lived.
(He collapses onto the chair, burying his face in his hands.)
I scream into it.
I rage at the heavens.
I demand answers.
Where was justice?
Where was warning?
Where was mercy?
And yet… there is no reply.
No echo.
No solace.
Only the truth that it is gone.
Snatched away.
(He rises slowly, trembling with emotion.)
Life teaches us so gently…
until it teaches us violently.
We are told to cherish, to love, to protect.
And we do.
And yet the very thing we treasure
can vanish in a heartbeat.
One second, it is yours.
The next…
a shadow remains where warmth once lived.
(He steps forward, voice rising, almost desperate.)
How do you fill that emptiness?
How do you carry on
when the ground under your feet
has shifted in an instant?
You cannot.
Not fully.
Not immediately.
But you must try.
You must breathe.
You must continue
even when the chest aches
and the heart wails in silence.
(He pauses, voice softening.)
Because life does not pause for grief.
It does not bend to your sorrow.
It simply moves forward—
merciless, relentless, and indifferent.
And so, I move forward too.
Broken, yes.
Fractured, yes.
Shaken, yes.
But alive.
Because though it was snatched away,
I am left with memory.
I am left with love once felt.
I am left with courage
to endure the unimaginable.
(He looks upward, tears in his eyes.)
I do not forget.
I do not forgive the void.
But I remember
what was precious,
what was beautiful,
what was mine to hold—even for a moment.
And in that memory,
I find strength.
Even when the world takes suddenly,
even when life snatches away,
even when everything crumbles,
we endure.
(He steps back slowly, letting the silence fill the stage.)
Snatched away…
Yes.
But never erased.
(Lights dim completely. Silence.)