Gleamed on the kitchen table;
They came with game rules in the base of a cardboard box.
My dad, Dick, would shuffle those bones along the sleek table
And I would listen to the rhythm of the clicking bones.
Sometimes they were chattering to me.
Sometimes they seemed in slow motion
Like old farts doing their death dance,
Shuffling off their mortal coils.
(composed on May 13, 2003)
5 comments:
Half of the fun of games, whether it be dominos, cards or board games is the set up and anticipation of the challenge you issue to your opponent. The poem talks about the sounds the bones made as his father set them up and it reminds me of card playing with my mother as a child. I do remember the shuffling and splitting the deck and wondering if I would ever be able to handle the cards so quickly and precisely with my thumbs as she could(no, by the way, she is freakishly agile with a deck of cards). I think a poem that triggers a set of your own memories and allows you to picture exactly how the writer feels is a successful and well written one.
Many games nowadays bring the biggest satisfaction when you win and with that goal in mind you are pushed to place a bigger challenge on your opponent. This poem is focusing on what the player is seeing, what the player is listening to when the dominoes are being rubbed together, It reminds me of ever being involved in a game when you feel as if that person is dealing you your next card in life. You never know what to expect but if it is your lucky day you may just out smart the otehr players. It takes a good player to play a good game and beat everyone around him. Though a losing person is still a loser they may learn from the winner to perhaps take him off of his thrown the next time around.
Sometimes it is best to be the observer and then come into the game and not only be the new person but the new winner. I watched my grandfather all my life as he played with his deck of cards and he never let those cards leave his sight, so maybe sometimes it is more than just practice but LUCK.
It's amazing to me what memories we retain from childhood. It's also amazing the tactile associations that are attached to them and how they can be forgotten for years, but a simple smell or sound or touch will bring it all flooding back and make it real again.
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