What You Learn by Looking Away

They reached for a napkin that wasn't there,

the meeting droning on, and their hands

just hung for a second before they

pulled them back. Hands that didn't know

what to do without something to hold.

I watched their fingers instead of their eyes,

learned more from the tremor there

than from anything they said out loud.

Hands don't lie the way faces do.

Hands reveal what the voice is trying to hide,

what the body can't quite manage

to keep still.