corners

It was a quiet little corner
And I had gently folded up
Like human origami
Arms crossed on my lap
Neck long and twisting
Ankles laid one on the other
A single paper crane

I saw the other woman
In her little corner
Leaning on her bracelet
And cutting her eyes sideways
With one remaining yawn of shrewdness
Extinguished
The man, smiling back without delight
His arm around her shoulder
Like he had slipped it
Into her purse

My corner felt big
A lifeboat before its filled
Still lashed to the side of a ship
A hollow but friendly vessel
Agreeing to carry a paper bird
As they gathered like a crowd
On a dance floor across

Then, perched in my corner
On the verge of wondering at
The spectacle of their clinking glasses
I abruptly dismissed them
The way I'd inevitably turn from
The sight of a vacationer
Fretting before the whizzing windows
Of a slot machine