When The World Stopped Poem by ashok jadhav

It happened in a moment without warning—
no time to gather breath or say your name.
One second held you whole, the next was hollow,
and life split open where you used to stand.
The world kept moving, cruel in its rhythm.
Clocks did not pause. The sky did not break.
Only my heart refused the next beat,
stunned by the speed of what it could not save.
Your voice still rang inside the room for days,
a sound that had not learned it was alone.
I reached for you by habit, not by hope,
my hands forgetting what my mind now knew.
Shock is a silence louder than all grief—
a frozen space where tears forget to fall.
I live there still, between the before and after,
where love stands stunned, and calls your name too late.