Set in an airport, the poem watches two people who look calm but are anything but. A man tries to finish some office paperwork, yet his pen moves "softly and fast" and he can't actually write. Across from him, a girl holds her favourite book, but her eyes wander over the page without taking anything in. Both are stuck in the same way: their minds are elsewhere, tangled up with the noise around them.
The poem builds its effect through repetition. The same phrases, "leg crossed," "for his mind is elsewhere," "her thoughts mixed up," are used for both people, so they seem like mirror images. The final lines make this clearer: a third person sits in front of the girl, a stranger she will never know, also with crossed legs. The mood is quiet, restless and a little lonely. Everyone is physically close, yet each person is sealed inside private worries, and the poem suggests this could go on down the row indefinitely.