Elevator Etiquette

This elevator doesn't stop between floors one through nine
and doesn't stop on one or nine either, which is efficient
but awkward in those silent seconds without floor beeps.
I always hope to travel alone, but here comes one fellow
right before the doors slide closed, and another at his heels.
So there are three, three men, and strangely all our hands
are in our pockets. I'm in one corner that feels like the shallow
end of the swimming pool, next to a a bald gentleman
whose stomach hangs over his belt like a dog's head out a window,
behind another man whose moustache-tips I can see peek out
from around his craggy face, even though I'm glancing into
the back of his head. That's a class moustache, indeed,
curled off the lip and pulled out; I can picture his faceless wife
kissing the ends as she does a thread
before aiming for the needle's hole.

The carpet is checkered. Not like a checkerboard, just some boxes
and other more elongated rectangles of white and brown and black,
and this I call checkered. I've seen some "foxes" in here before,
some real "knockouts" whose slippery figures send my eyes falling
to trace the carpet. Even with these men, my eyes hit the floor,
though, and I can tell by peripheral neck angles that we share a view.
It's elevator etiquette, to me, like holding in your flatulence
or hitting the "close door" button after each stop. I've broken these rules
and others. I hate holding the door, and there have been many times
when I've seen an angry face appear when the closing door gap
is a couple of inches, even though my eyes are examining the skirting
or looking at myself in the warped mirrored ceiling.
Then the door is closed and I feel excused.

We stand in this elevator, the walls a shiny gold and paneled with
fake wood, waiting for our floors to light up and ring us through.
The doors are gold, too, and I leave first. It is pure chance
that my number is lower, and I walk as always with my hands hidden
into the steady grey of the 13th floor hallway,
knowing their eyes are still on the ground.