It’s been twenty minutes now.
We’ve been stopped, waiting for assistance.
Please hurry up stranger, it’s a symphony of shivers in here.

There was a hard crashing thud against the wall
behind my seat next to the closing doors.
I thought nothing of it.
Maybe someone’s luggage fell.
But wait–why did that man’s face across from me
also fall, just as intensely?

A business man is slumped over on the ground,
like one of those birds that sticks its head in the dirt.
It’s a peculiar position to collapse in
especially when you can’t come out of it.
Hold on, why won’t he come out of it?
Why does his body lay motionless like that?

Sir, you have to get up. You’re not okay. Sit down. No, let me help you.

My mind and body have never been so in sync with
each other, yet so rattled.
God, why did I look him straight in the face?
Wasn’t the pool of blood on the floor
enough ick for the day?
He chooses to look up in my direction.
It was like a target, that big gushing red spot
right out of his nose.
Where’s that other guy that went to get help?