Best Dealt Poems
'Foggy' location seeds were from, curiosity won
Five months later, wanderer from roof tall trellis hung
Violet globe pods were bitter but oddly addictive
Several dozen daily dose, sour juice inflicted
Soon supplied smoothie zing, purple milk vibrant
Irresistible, the youth inducing effect they provided
A year after planting, I'd positively lost ten
Face entering wrinkle free twenties again!
Friends amazed by results of youth fruit blessed
After eighteen short months, I appeared adolescent
Freely sharing my vivacious treacherous discovery
From her desirable rewinding hand, no recovery
Benjamin Button's slow motion journey ridiculed
- My eight year old routinely tucks me into bed!!
9th August 2020
I close my eyes and travel to places I want to go
Imagining the details, eyerything I can see
I listen to the noises, of birds, the wind or creaks
Animals walking through the woods
Waves crashing on the shores
I think of things I did, So many years ago,
Before my illness changed me
Like a thief the things it stole.
One thing it cannot have
Are the memories in my head
The pains that it has caused me
Are close to being dead
Nerve pain is unimaginable to ever try explain
Unless another suffers nothing is the same
Its taken all my vigor, my vit and my vim
So many times all that's left are to close my eyes and dream
Chronic pain is something most people suffer alone
Our friendships and relationships are done mostly on the phone
No one wants to hear excuses all the time
For why I'm stuck in bed, and cannot meet and roam
To places that I used to go to spend along with friends
Have now become old memories no one can depend
If I could change one thing in life it would be not to be
The person whose always sick and tired
That person isn't me.
The me I want to be is the one that used to run
Off on a whim to anywhere to anything that was fun
So pray for me is all I ask and maybe once in a while
Think of me and how I was and I hope that you will smile
My illness does not define the person that I am
Just because I'm down today
Does not mean forever
Tomorrow is another chance that I will try some more
To regain all I used to be and will become again
This game is not over until I throw in the towel.
The second time we met, I call him Bob
Just call me Robert was what he replied
We shared model plane flying with the guys
And we all had fun, that can’t be denied
There were words of wisdom, he spoke one day
He didn’t mix words, that’s just how he felt
He was already under Hospice care, when he said
“You’ve got to Play with the Cards you’re Dealt”
A pilot during WW2
His memory was sharp, his recall was clear
He shared past history, during our visits
Occurrences from his Marine career
When those challenges of my life occur
Should thoughts of ‘giving-up’ be sometimes felt
That phrase that Robert said will come to mind
“You’ve got to Play with the Cards you’re Dealt”
Life is just a game to me,
I never stood a chance.
The rules were just suggestion,
To play me while I danced…
To dance around in circles,
Chasing what was hope.
Enough to feed allusion
Enough to keep afloat.
And when my hand was strongest,
When odds were at their best.
My cards had left me nothing,
Now I sit and bare the jest.
Games were always changing,
The rules were never set.
The bluff, almost convincing
As I double-up my bet.
It seems luck is against me,
Fate with her to boot.
They weren’t content with winning,
So they robbed of my youth.
Lonely chips are waiting,
Soon I’ll be all out.
I think myself, a victim
But I always kept a count.
Always taking chances,
I swam against the tides.
The players seemed to notice,
So familiar with my lies.
I didn’t seek to hide it,
Or disguise my lack of faith.
I wouldn’t bother cheating,
Nor try to plead my case.
I gambled all my savings,
My feelings and my past.
Remorse was just a bonus,
One I finally lost at last.
When I reached my limit,
The end of my last bout.
No one bothered turning,
Or rose to see me out…
I refused to waste a moment,
Nor stop to breathe the air.
My tired legs were moving,
But to where? I didn't care.
If I didn't smile so much
Invisible I would have stayed
Instead, he chose me to be
A pawn in the game he played
If I wasn't as strong as I was
Then I wouldn't have been all alone
If my skin was more sensitive
Then the bruises would have shown
If I didn't have these color eyes
His favorite blue like the sea
He maybe would have picked someone
Anyone other than me
Maybe if I explained my words better
So, people would understand how I felt
Strategically I began to play each move
With the hand that I was dealt
I knew how this game would end
And it was winner-takes-all
He placed the first bid
I soon followed with a call
I wasn't going to go down easy
I was going to make it tough
He soon realized this
The moment I called his bluff
The game lasted so long
And I hoped he couldn't tell
Full of fear I was sitting
I made sure I hid it well
Finally, a stroke of luck
I took a chance with no plan
I hoped my cards were better
Then the ones held in his hand
Little to no chips left
I was forced to go all in
Thinking that he had me
I showed my cards for the win
I made it out alive
The memories I can't erase
The game I'm always reminded of
By the scar upon my face
One one
A day to celebrate New Year fun
But for the future to be right
Need a jack to act like a knight
Getting the picture card
Designed satirically by the bard
At this moment in time
Royal influence of course is fine
Creating a rectangular line
On the felt gaming table
Shaking and still stable
Looking towards tomorrow
We want this horror
To split from the deck
When we use the honest trusting vaccine check
Treating others with respect
Enduring this uncomfortable situation
Where the world is patient
Making sacrifice
Staying nice
One one changes to one two
Population stays relatively cool
Dealing with an unbelievable healthy security rule
Could be debated a controlling tool
Now that the day is done
We wonder if this war has been won
Changing the ages final number
Secure international relations have not crumbled
Calendar says twenty twenty one
That asks the question ‘what’s to come?’
Answer a lot of thanks
Should be taking to the cooperation banks
Since peace is popping the cork
Doing enormous humanitarian work
People tell me to try and be happy
and for them I try
yet how can I
What ways can I
I'm drowning in the cards
Karma dealt to me
I can't drown out the noises, the voices
the candle that burned out
from the overdose of a thousand lies
The wind can't appreciate a moment alone
the last night I had to say goodbye
I had to close the wounds before
the drainage started
Forget everything
Yours to hold, nothing more than a misconception
Agitation of the abbreviations
my reward for sacrificing myself
putting everyone else first instead of myself
My reward is a chain of misery
pain and suffering
I can hear the talk
but I'll walk over the edge
without a splat cause I hate it like that
Trap me in a room with anybody that hates me
and I'll be an animal in a cage
full of rage and hate
Too late for me to change
can't hold me
Rather be under a shady tree but shady made me
Despite the hidden rain
despite the look in my eyes
I'm dying on the inside
back to all the yesterdays
back to the stack of love letters
written in night's sorrows
to all thouse lovers left behind
back to simple truth of it
back to the one true heart and the knowin
back to your beginnings
play the cards dealt
play like you love the game
even though its the hardest thing you've ever done
play like you believe that romance is a means to an end
that the heart can be brought and paid for
like your true heart can be one of them
cause they will hurt you if you stand apart
if you show your true nature
so play like you love the game
play the cards dealt
it will be in the moonlight
of some none too distant night
you will come upon another soul that sings
come upon another heart that breaths like you do
and you will know
see the truth in the lovin
that its more than some hearts game
that its more than some adventure in the sheets
you will know the hearts song
Every day’s a card game
And so there’s always hope
Each shuffle of the deck may bring
Just what we need to cope.
Though life is never easy,
People’s challenges may vary
And the cards we’re dealt may seem
Unfairly arbitrary.
There’s comfort, though, in knowing
Others grapple with their hand,
Possibly in ways which we
Could never understand.
Life’s a fickle dealer
So we take the cards we get
And when the deck’s been good to us,
It’s still not safe to bet.
For aces do not guarantee
That things will go our way.
A good luck streak will never keep
Adversity at bay.
We play the hand we’re given
And resort to strength within,
For at times we may get lucky
And just possibly, we’ll win.
I ain’t no phoney
Just full of bologna (E)
Doing the fifth step
Will keep me Kept
Doing inventory
Kinda like a story
Humbling myself
Feels like nothing else
Asking for help
So I can play the cards Dealt
Diving into the space after midnight
The place where minds are dark and cold
In the moment of true happening
Reality of life with our soul
Finding time to contemplate
Overpowered, a raging of distrust
Holding on for each and every ending
Aware of our own finale of dust
Seeking a soothing to anoint us
To save from inexplicable pain
More time needed in forgiveness
Ourselves as others much the same
I wish that I could find answers
Explanations of all I have felt
This journey that always in struggle
As I wrestle with all I have been dealt
Everything takes a getting used to
And I’m used to not getting used to things
Almost like things to know I knew
Almost like sleeping... in control of dreams
To be the jacks of all trades
And kings of nothing in all
Rather a king to modestly rate
When jacks of everything were in store
Complaints and grievances are advancing
Given any new way to inevitably expect
As people to be made in narrowed advertising
Did we not but begin to question what is lack?
They do not see but felt
They only feel when its seen
They do not work but its dealt
Who is hardworking... who is keen?
Everyone knows... someone knew
If we only know it all yet... never more
Is there something you’ve gotten used to?
Or perhaps a card already you stand for?
We all must play the hand we’re dealt
And many folks’ve surely felt
That most unfairly they’ve been whacked
By cards that somehow have been stacked.
Still, there are those that rise above
And focus on the things they love,
While others flounder first, then sink.
(There must be more of those, I think.)
Yet as the game of life plays out,
The future always filled with doubt,
Some winners lose and losers win,
For that’s the way it’s always been.
The mirror used to be my friend;
Alas, those days have reached the end.
I see my face and can’t pretend
I’m anything but old.
I guess it’s me beneath the skin
That wrinkles somehow settled in
And make-up couldn’t quite begin
To spin this straw to gold.
My earrings still remain in place
And, just like always, frame my face,
But time will not let me erase
Its firm, relentless hold.
Yet I’m still in the living game.
The hand that I’ve been dealt I’ll claim
And, though I don’t look quite the same,
I’m not prepared to fold.
I’m rather disappointed with the hand I was dealt
When I was a child the choice was a stick or the belt
I know today that these were just tools
Wisdom can come from the mouths of fools.
It seems today I’ve placed some cards down
Change has arrived without making a sound
The more you have lost the more that can be found
My feet seem to float up right off of the ground.
I don’t know why changes comes so hard
The road should be smoother once it is tarred
The more things remain the more they need change
Even though at first it feels rather strange.
It’s been going so good I think I’ll put down some more
What I don’t know is what the future has in store
To feed all the hungry and give to the poor
This is the kind of change we should endure.
The peace that I feel was always inside
The fear in the world made peace want to hide
It grows like a flower opening up for the sun
As I look at what change really has done.