Or deal

Memories are

Pick a card, any card,

except you do not choose

Well

we all carry a card or two

up a sleeve, lain

on the table

hence playing with

A full deck 

is rare

52 weeks

shuffle like thrown-up

cards, now the 

Five of clubs

Demands your decision.

Go fish for 

another

Hand read them

like palm lines

to call or stay

this time around

Krazy 8's and wild

Jokers interrupt as 

I shuffle through

these days,

Solitaire and surprised

at the random nature 

making a game

Of dealing with it.

Painting by Juan_Gris, 'Damier et cartes à jouer'  (Checkerboard and playing cards) c. 1915, Google Art Project in Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 

Draw out

It must have been
one of those crossroads
that Dante found too dark
to penetrate
and I find myself
sinking
to the depths
of Tarot,
whereby a spark may be
cast,
only one strike,
like sipping one toe into the
Inferno
and you know
I drew;
The Emporer, The Hermit, The Lovers,
The Devil
and Strength.

There is something
strait-forward about
a cross, a sword, empty cups,
perhaps
the pathway, and a Virgil,
that may say
directions,
like selections
when lain, like steps
a hand
is dealt and there lies
choice,
namely,
to forget
The Fool.



Artwork by Dante Gabriel Rossetti [Public domain].