Five Card Stud
/Jonathan B. Aibel
I try to teach myself poker,
deal five hands all to myself.
My bluffs fail, my tells give
me away and I lose my pants
to the house, sent to the kitchen
to wash other peoples' food off dishes
for my debt, a hard bargain I struck,
disappointed with myself I guess
I should not have tried
to cheat, or not have done it so poorly
that I caught myself.
Author’s Statement: In this piece, I reflect on being a lonely child, playing games by myself, while my parents hosted fancy cocktail parties.
Jonathan B. Aibel is a recovering software engineer who lives in Concord, MA, traditional homelands of the Nipmuc. His poems have been published, or will soon appear, in pacificREVIEW, Chautauqua, Pangyrus, Lily Poetry Review, Cider Press Review,and elsewhere. http://www.jbaibelpoet.com.
