John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in Examined Life Journal, Evening Street Review and Columbia Review with work upcoming in Harpur Palate, Poetry East and Midwest Quarterly.

Origami

A crane appears
from out of her twisting,
flipping, squeezing fingers,
wings of paper flapping,
from the inside out
as a beak elongates
and a twist or two
collapses into tail.

All eyes are on
the transformation
into bird,
and not the woman
from full face and body
into nothing
but her own busy hands.

For the sake of origami,
she folds up
like a dollar-bill elephant
or a Kawasaki cube.
It’s a spectacular act
but no one sees it.