Sadness

Overwhelming sadness suffocates every instinct, survival strategy, and coping mechansim; it murders the future and crushes with the pressure of a 20 ton weight.

You can't see it. It is masked. Walk tall. Maintain the pose. Be quick with a smile. 

Make people laugh, even though there is no laughter to draw from.

But read the mind, catch a glimpse of the internal posture - you will be horrified.

How can one function at all, torn between a dark reality and an adopted persona? Given the magnitude of the stress, the body should just explode. Blow apart like a grenade, spreading bloody shrapnel across the landscape.

But it doesn't work like that. A mind, a body, a life at war with itself implodes. Collapsing violently inwards. Silently.

This is neater, and much more considerate, leaving room for others to pretend. Pretend that all is well; with themselves and with those around them.

But the collapse is inevitable. A house divided...............

A life becomes unmanageable. Undetectable fractures become fissures, fissures lead to shattering and suddenly....

"What did he just say? Did he really do that? Where did that come from?"

There are consequences, the curtain falls, people look the other way and move on.

Until it happens again.