The Card Players

A fourth was needed so one of the three Invited a friend and I came along as a spare In case a chair was empty since I could fill In as easily as I could shout out a rhyme. As the jive flowed like the River Jordan And Joshua and his trumpets sounded the alarm The winning cards slam damned on the table And I laughed along with morning noon and night. My three big brothers: bold smart handsome. One slim as a stick of dynamite, the second solid As a line backer and the third crazy enough To fight them both if they let it roll beyond talk. Treated me like a child even after I had my first. The three of them (ace king and a wild card) Improbably born within four years as if Daddy And Momma were trying to break a record Or win a bet about how many diapers a woman Could change in a single day without cursing The hand God had dealt her; the odds were even Until I came along years later to tell their story.