The Card Tables

Stop playing. You do remember the card tables, Slick stick figures like men with low-cut fades, Short but standing straight Because we bent them into weak display. What didn’t we want? What wouldn’t we claim? How perfectly each surface was made For throwing or dropping or slamming a necessary Portion of our pay. And how could any of us get by With one in the way? Didn’t that bare square ask to be played On, beaten in the head, then folded, then put away, All so we could call ourselves safe Now that there was more room, a little more space?