Dynamics of the Waiting Lounge

The restless person kept getting up
And going over to the window
Before returning to sit again,

Which distracted the patient person.
Restlessness is often infectious,
But not as a disease or a yawn—

Infectious the way a collision
Is sent within a Newton’s cradle,
A conservation of momentum.

Just so, one at the end of the row
Of persons sitting waiting, shoulders
Aligned, jumped up when the restless one

Sat down again, without apparent
Movement on the part of the patient
Person distracted by compression.