A Stack of Cards

I moved from the side table to the lower shelf of the tall bookcase. Beside three blue paperbacks rested a loose deck of playing cards. Rather than aligning their edges, I gripped the corner of a stiff card and rested it upright against another at a sixty-degree pitch. I balanced a third flat across the top. The miniature triangular structure held steady. When I rested a small metal paperclip on the center of the span, the paper sagged by one millimeter but did not collapse. The balance remains intact.