I Started This One Hobby Faking Lie-Detector Tests and Stacking Poker Chips

Gamblers call it the tell, the giveaway.
Some kind of subconscious cue
that breaks a pattern, or shades
the eye, or lets the pro know
this hand is hot, this one or that
is bluffing, not. Around the table
everyone wants to play Hamlet
or perhaps Shylock, depending on the game,
the odds, the take, the rake, the house
or what’s waiting at home after dark.
Even newbies and fish take a whiff
of smoke-filled air when a pot grows.

* * *

My 2011 NoWriPo is a self-starter, a riff on a brilliant work, I Am A Very Productive Entrepreneur by Mathias Svalina. Don’t be disappointed. Read the Real Thing. And support small presses, too.

“Reveal”  is the theme, thanks to the Poetic Asides 2011 PAD Chapbook Challenge.