Where South China waters churn heavy and wide,
A widow rose up with the ocean's own tide.
No emperor’s decree could govern her hand,
She ruled forty thousand across sea and land.
Her laws were of iron, her word absolute—
No plunder unshared, and no thief with his loot.
With hundreds of junks bearing canvas of red,
The empires of Europe beheld her with dread.
The Qing and the Portuguese launched their attack,
Yet her fleet in the bay drove the battle-line back.
She outfought the crown and she outmaneuvered the state,
Till they offered her peace at the emperor's gate.
She surrendered her sails, but retained all her gold,
A pirate supreme who grew peaceful and old.
Though dynasties crumbled and admirals fell,
The terror of Canton lives on in the swell.
Doris was quick-thinking
quick-acting, clever, and shrewd
But pointedly polite and polished
Never abrupt or rude
Her knowledge of psychology helped her get by with much
Fooling relatives, acquaintances, coworkers, and such
they were eagerly outsmarted and outmaneuvered by her.
She had an open heart, and a face that was open and pure.
She knew they
were easy marks midst
her beguiling cunning
had it in spades,
they thought they had
the better hand,
stacked the deck in their wager,
til she bet them all
under the round table
with token trick
aces up her skirt,
they didn't realize
she had already gambled
her jacked-up savings,
this was merely a player's
penalty game of suits,
she'd never get beaten
nor shuffled again,
pocketed kill in dealer's turn of a card,
outmaneuvered the joker's clubs
broke the bank's seven-card studs
trumped the king,
walked away the Queen
decked out in diamonds
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