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Poetry/Prose: Brace Yourself

When it's this quiet, you know someone or something is up to no good. 
Plotting and scheming and devising plans anew, all for the amusement of what it/they can do to you.

It's like an airplane ride. 
You get on, make yourself comfortable, listen to the safety instructions – or not - and let your thoughts wonder far beyond the height of clouds upon which you ride.

The pilot's voice comes onto the PA system; introduces him/herself as well as his co-fate holders. 
You hear it, but you don't really listen, because if anyone ever asked you anew, you'd never even be able to recollect the first letter of his/her first name.

And so you begin.
Some turbulence here, a couple of cumuli nimbus clouds there, wait is that a bird or a plane gliding next to me? No sir, simply your imagination running wild upon the pasture of sky.

Doze in, doze out, icky airplane food, yet you gobble it all down.
And the musings. Oh my, those musings.Such injustice they do to the very plane ride you're on. 
From Hong Kong to Dubai to Cape Town and the Alps. All in but a jiffy of a second.

Finally, mercifully - you never really can tell - comes the sleep.
Deep yet right on the surface, with the neck, arm and leg cramps to show what a valiant attempt you made. 

All that is fine, all that is expected, until...
...Well, the nothingness.

The split second when your eyes meet and you take in the essence of an entire being.
 The "oops" right before you find yourself kissing the ground involuntarily after breaking yet another heel of shoe.
The hour transitioning night into day when even a pin drop would sound like a million cymbals to the ear 
That eerie stillness when everything you ever knew is lain before you and then quickly taken away, and in its place...
“Go into brace position!” the air hostess announces in semi-panic, semi-control.

And there you are. Caught in a frenzy as  the entire universe rushes in. 
Wooooosh! Overload of information, of possibilities, of uncertainties untold.

Hi there, square one! Everything begins anew
From  certainty to wonder, from knowledge to speculation.

They do say the hour is darkest right before the dawn. 
Like it or not partner, you've been selected for this particular ride. 

Now, fasten your seat belt and brace yourself.

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