more room, a little more space?

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? 

 

[Jericho Brown {1976- } 'The Card Tables', from The Tradition]