Long Blackjack Poems

It was still quite dark in Milton Creek, and it had just gone four
When Tom arrived at the sheriff's office, and knocked on his door
The Sheriff quickly opened up and beckoned Tom, to come inside
They...

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Christopher Cuddy made his home in west Texas,
in the small town of Stone Brook Falls.
He made his living as a realtor,
selling off lots both big and small.

When he was forty-five his father passed,
he had lived...

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2/23/18


On me you'd tittle tattle
Too often you told me fiddle-faddle
Now you're beginning to unravel
Can't even handle
Your own battle
And are being used an example
For what happens when you pull a scandal


You told me claptrap
It's time I...

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He rose from his half-finished whisky,
and set out, clear out of town.
Blackjack would be very keen to know
what the soft, little clerk had found.

Gil rode back out into the desert,
retracing where he previously went.
Finding the...

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A beautiful Wintu girl reached puberty. Her sisters were sent to find 
maple bark to make her an apron. 

It so happened that Turtle, the mischievous son of the mighty ‘Sky 
Turtle’ stopped at the...

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Ah, the life surreal.  Nothing like wearing the weirdness like a greatcoat as I sip bad hotel coffee and muse over where the last few years have taken me while watching ice flow around old...

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Ponytails and blue jeans 
Sat at Papaw's knee, 
Watching as he whittled 
On old branches from a tree. 
    And while he talked of cowboys 
And big old Texas ranches, 
He trimmed...

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Blackjack’s face held its dark glare,
he shook his head in disgust.
“We rode all this way, and your great ‘treasure’
is some moldy old paper and dust?”

He slowly moved his hand towards his gun,
but besides him a...

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They all put so much stress on
getting a college degree,
and if it’s math or science,
I think that I would agree.
But in the humanities
another trend now appears,
kids are taught to hate themselves,
and this is reason for...

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The bayou sky flies a catfish moon over swamp gators 
And cottonmouth vipers. Accordions, fiddles, and rub board vests 
Make their ramble through the undergrowth hot on the trail
Of a sultry midsummer house party in...

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So again you say
what it is you say
same  different
day
because that’s all
there ever was
whenever you’d play
the minimum chips
you barely waged
and yet I stupidly
played and played
at this gambling
you staged.

You want to cut
you want to
maim so now
I’m...

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Abiding Beauty
     By Dane Smith-Jonsen

Above the fern at the forest's edge, a butterfly gracefully glides.
Beautiful yellow flittering near tastes the sugary buttercup.
Flashing sulphur wings, happily spreading, upon a placid breeze rides.
The...

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Reason number 1, your beauty hits me like a punch, 
I'm leaned against the ropes and passed out drunk, 
but that's whasup,

the Reasons 2-10, I just can't wait to meet again, I'll 
share my rigormorted...

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Our lab named “Blackjack”, looks just like a bear
Jet black and grey, the color of his hair.
He’s an English Lab, with the big wide head
We bought him instead, of buying a bed.

He wouldn’t come in,...

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I came here to win.
I need a lucky shuffle.
I want some blackjacks.

Here is my money.
I hope you’re better this time.
Please, no surprises.

You were not too kind
to me the last time around.
I need some winners.

Here is...

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Well, I’m back again!
Treat me better than before.
I need some winners.

I remember you.
The last time I was down here
You were not too nice!

You let me win now!
Lady luck’s been a bad girl.
I hope you’ll change...

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He lay awaiting spraying cards

Beckoning with his forked tongue

Come here my son lay down your guard

Bet what you like it is only for fun

I started with a bet so small

A face arriving right at my...

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At a Greyhound station in Macon, Georgia I gambled my soul with the Devil.
He strolled in after midnight and told me he was on the level
and asked if I was a gambling man and I...

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She’s a switchblade, blackjack,
Knuckle-duster dame.
Got the proper block and tackle,
Lash your rigging to the frame.
She put the drill press to your taproot
And the grindstone to your saber.
Good for sharpening your senses,
Keeps you on your best...

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Mania
	
	It’s a very sneaky thing, mania is. 
	I’m humming along, 
	probably minding someone else’s business, 
	giving little attention to my own state of being 
	when it slides in, mania does, 
	a message slipped under the...

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Well, I’m back again. 
I’m here to try out my luck.
Be nice to me now.

Will you let me win?
I feel you are overdue
to give me winners.

Here is my money.
Are those chips of yours lucky?
I need...

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State of Being



I’m humming along, minding someone else’s business no doubt, giving little attention to my own state of being. And it slides in, a message slipped under the door saying, “Here I come. Are...

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I was riding a streak with the dice in my fist.   
Lady Luck was with me, seemed  I couldn’t miss!
Then this babe caught my eye,--I crapped out time and again.  
Lady...

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THE FIRE IN OUR SOULS 

"Can our inferno be quenched
Two souls longed to be benched
In an atmosphere of flames
No one to blame
Attraction of spiritual planes
We both can tame
As we aim
To complete our
Journey the same
I can...

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My thoughts drift back thro' the fleeting mists of time,
To my youth when life seemed somewhat more sublime.
Memories waft thro' my mind as tho' on gossamer wings,
Recalling uncommon folks, events and very special things!

I'll never...

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