showdown and tabula rasa

By RC deWinter

showdown

lucky in card unlucky in love
so old cardsharks say

the inverse isn't true
i play the hands i'm dealt

eights and aces
at the table and in love

so ante up you brash bold gamblers
i'll raise you every time

i’m the great dissembler
prepare to lose your shirts

my heart a poker face
cards close to the chest is my new game

i've given it away too many times
and learned the hard way not to smile

tabula rasa

pitch black
eyes closed
supine in a barren field
waiting for the dragon of dreams
nose open for the smoketang
of singed stardust
ears pricked for the great whoosh
of leather wings
craving the sharp but welcome spike
of a talon
lifting me away
to where everything is possible
i need to be there in the night
for i've forgotten how to dream in daylight
my castles in the air crumble
not even half built
and i sit half buried spitting sand
awash in the saltwater of regret

it's said we all dream every night
there was a time
when i remembered mine
they soothed me
taught me
gave me glimpses
of the future
damn all oneirologists for liars!
i do not dream
not anymore
when i awake
my mind is blank
as any new-made slate
innocent of visions good or ill
i need to dream
for dreams are hope
oh dragon take me please
and let me dream tonight 

RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017), easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles, (Patrick Heath Public Library of Boerne, 11/2021) The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press, 12/2021), in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, The Ogham Stone, Twelve Mile Review, York Literary Review among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.