I saw it. The nail and the hammer and the strike. It took me a minute to process it, but what I saw wasn't as appalling as one might think it to be. The far-be-it-from-me conclusion, that was made before it happened, was the single most persuasive argument I could have heard. It made what I saw less real, less meaningful. When that hammer came down, I was prepared. And the aftermath was bland-- because I was prepared.
The blood was hot, but became cold quickly. Thick carmine that drips, meanders, flows, all over and everywhere and everyday, drys & dies. Gone. A remnant of life that once was. Kind words about a brutal end. And in that end, that end I saw, that I was prepared for, was not as appalling I thought it could be.