IT lesson 5: Poetry on Gambling

Tom Beatty
I was a lawyer like Harmon Whitney
Or Kinsey Keene or Garrison Standard,
For I tried the rights of property,
Although by lamp-light, for thirty years,
In that poker room in the opera house.
And I say to you that Life’s a gambler
Head and shoulders above us all.
No mayor alive can close the house.
And if you lose, you can squeal as you will;
You’ll not get back your money.
He makes the percentage hard to conquer;
He stacks the cards to catch your weakness
And not to meet your strength.
And he gives you seventy years to play:
For if you cannot win in seventy
You cannot win at all.
So, if you lose, get out of the room—
Get out of the room when your time is up.
It’s mean to sit and fumble the cards,
And curse your losses, leaden-eyed,
Whining to try and try.

The Green Clothes
The colourful tips,
The smoke,
The dry lips,
The tired voice, “No more bets”
The hands,
Erratic sights,
Constrained tones,
Mesmerizing lights,
Twenty eight seconds of roulette’s spin
Nervously jigging ball
The clothes are green
Somewhere, in another world,
The ringing of falling coins
and obtrusive melody: “Tu-ru-ru-ruuuu”….
These are very, very far.
His body, glance, nerves,
Brain, space and time are
Condensed in the small ball,
Which is trembling in the circle.
Dryness in the throat.
That is all:Morning, 4:48, emptiness … .
The blazing desire to win back,
To take revenge, to bring back
The nerves, the time, the brain
And all that was spent in vain.
by Gulnara Karimova

One-Dollar Gambler
I have one dollar to bet on number 13
One dollar for a loaf of bread
With a piece of ham, sandwiched between two slices of tomato.
One dollar for a hot milk tea
Before work time starts.
One dollar for some paper and ink
And some knowledge for a blind man.
One dollar each morning,
One dollar each night and for each brick I laid.
But, I bet one dollar. The counter closed
The next day number 13 appeared
In the middle of my drowsy eyes
On top of my nose
Or somewhere in between the hollowness
Of my empty hands.
I now have zero dollars to bet
Zero dollars for bread, tea, paper, ink and bricks!
Zero dollars, again, for number 13.
by Phan Thi Nam Mai

Tom Beatty

It seems that the place is too ‘important’ that even the mayor cannot close it down. In gambling, the odds will always be against the player. But if the gambler loses, the place will always be there if he wants to take another gamble. But the author advised that it is better to stop and get over the loss than continue to try your luck.


The Green Clothes

Gambling sometimes has a brainwashing effect on the gambler. It can be nerve-racking, energy-zapping and yet eventually all money can be lost. ‘Dry lips’, ‘erratic sights’, ‘mesmerizing lights’, ‘constrained tones’ shows that there is a lot of tension, fear and anxiety, just like Tay Soon in the Paper, and all that was spent was in vain.


One-Dollar Gambler

Although the gambler sees the importance of a dollar, it can buy him a proper breakfast (and food is important to the body), he still tries his luck with the one dollar he has. Now he has no money to even buy some food after the one dollar is gambled away. This poem seemed to imply that gambling can lead to poverty.