Texas Hold-Em
Middle-aged, dealt hands of busted
marriages between them, who’d have
guessed by betting on their messy
lives, they’d thrive? She’d forgotten
how to trust, folded men quicker
than she’d hold ‘em. He’d lost
the chair, one chip left. Antes high,
hard to make the call. And yet…
three decades later they still spoon
to warm each other’s flesh, feast
on shared ideas, make meals together
in the kitchen. A once in a lifetime
hand, that royal flush.
*
Susan Shaw Sailer has published three collections of poems—The Distance Beyond Sight, The God of Roundabouts, Ship of Light, and two chapbooks—COAL and Bulletins from a War Zone. Sailer lives in Morgantown, WV, and is a member of the Madwomen in the Attic program at Carlow University, Pittsburgh.
