Footsteps Like Mad Paint Marks

On the train from Paris to Berlin
I watched a waiter fold a paper napkin
He creased each side then spread them wide
To tuck each corner in
On the train from Paris to Berlin

Distance From Paris To Berlin

A crumpled napkin
in an asphalt parking lot
under the first snow

under the footsteps
of people walking to cars
and walking from cars

becoming pressed flat
a two dimensional shape
a shape that was white

with defined edges
but then is smeared glazed over
lost but visible

under snow and grime
and footsteps like mad paint marks
designed by no one

almost no one sees
a crumpled napkin goodbye
like a lost painter.