tonight, there happens to be a joker in my hand.
maybe that's why everyone's laughing, except me.
this time, though,
I fear I'm betting more than I possess
and that the dealer is prepared to rob me blind.
too bad I don't know the tricks of his trade.
so there goes my cards onto the table
face-up, screaming "look at me!"
the crowd is silent; the dealer raises his right eyebrow
and I wake up from this nightmare
with a cold sweat and a sense of repetition in the air.
I'll never know how it resolves,
only because the dealer is an amateur, too.
- Jacqueline Audrey
