One Of A Kind

[drummondo]

One Of A Kind

 

The forced smoke carried ash and conversation -

It was thick enough to support both -

And the talk was heavy with hoarse throats

And coarse jokes. Of course, most

Had been heard before, but still the

Wafting, ghostly grey lines shivered in the air

As they were moved to laughter.

Several silenced moments passed, and after

Bad advice, and a surplus check,

The stakes were raised twice,

And shifted eyes scanned the surface

Of each individual mind, worthlessly

Hoping to find a nervous twitch of the eye

Probing and wondering, but never

Giving too much away. Gambling blind,

With one eye on the rewards, and the other on the door.

Two became viewers, and left behind a pair in competition.

Moving quickly, one threw too much in,

Experience counted for nothing, and a loose touch

Through such a heated game lost all the bets.

He was bluffing, and they knew as much as they needed

To call, and leave him dead like all the rest.

A sigh - He was so used to being paid on demand -

And one last weary look at the amounted contributions,

And, smiling slightly, with a nonchalant wave of the hand;

 

"I got nothing."

[reverie]

hey D...

 

do you do spoken word? Your style reminds me of it...

 

cool,

 

rev...

[drummondo]

Interesting you should say that.

 

This, and other recent pieces of mine, have been written with the intention - nay, the influence of the possibility - of speaking them, rather than reading them. You'll find various devices employed to aid this, such as loads of subtle, internal half-rhymes and not so much a meter, but a flow.

 

Thanks for noticing