A wager made by someone holding
A 3, 10, off-suit
Me holding a suited A, 4.
High enough and I’ll fold
Almost every time
I wonder if I have an online tell
Something in my aura
That lets those bully players know
All they have to do
To get everything I’ve bet so far,
Is to raise it up till I feel a pinch,
And they take it without a fight.

I hate that about myself.
Dangerous enough to take a chance,
Conservative enough that I’ll, usually, only
Risk it all
If I think I got the nuts.

Though I do admit
There are times when the bullies
Just piss me off,
And then I’ll go all in
Just to call their shit.
Worse case scenario?
I’m out of the game
And not having to play
With the likes of that going on.
Either way, I win.

I remember when I was 3,
A story my mama still tells,
But I remember it, too.
He was 8, a big kid for 8, too,
And too big to be riding my trike.
My mother had told him already once to stay off.

This particular morning,
I was playing "ice cream truck"
My trike turned upside down,
The pedals meant to churn the cream
(Or something like that)
While I called out, "ice cream,
Come get your ice cream!!"
I turned my back for some reason,
And he got on, wheeling his oversized knees
Just as fast as his legs would carry him.

My mother prepared to intervene,
When all of a sudden,
She saw me tearing down the sidewalk after him.
I didn't yell.
I didn't issue a warning of any kind.
Just me and my toddler-size Flintstone feet catchin' up
Until finally, when he was just within arm's reach,
I snatched him and his entire 8 year old self
Right off my tricycle onto his big bully butt in the dirt.

According to my mama,
I had one hand on my hip while I
Waggled my stubby little finger at his nose,
"My mama 'ready tole you, and now I'm tellin you too!
You're too BIG for my trike,
AND STAY OFF!!!!"

Mama says she
Never saw him do it again.

And as I register for another
Ten cent tourney,
I wonder how much of this
I still have going on in my real life.
I oughta quit, really -
I’m not all that lucky.
But maybe luck doesn't always have
The final say.

10/29/2008

Author's Note: Style entirely influenced by my reading of our own Charlie Morgan's BOOK, "See Through"!!!! Y'all oughta git yerselves a copy!!!!

Posted on 10/29/2008
Copyright © 2025 Alison McKenzie