Two Poems
17.01.14
YOU WILL LOSE
if you get called while bluffing on the river
you will lose
if you talk too much
you will lose
if you over commit yourself pre-flop
you will lose
if you start with an opposite assumption
you will lose
if you play a tight style all of the time
you will lose
if you don’t raise enough to get most garbage hands to fold
you will lose
if you reach the river with a top pair like a 9 kicker
you will lose
if you have no discipline
you will lose
if you fail to make moves that have long term positive expected value
you will lose
if you do not see the holes and do not fill the holes
you will lose.
DIGEST
the map which is architectural digest,
with its suggestions for shortcuts
(and also long cuts–ways to make time extend through clever design choices)
has gleefully appropriated
the bulbous modernism of a 1984 amc pacer.
no longer will the suggestion of wealth be marred by the litany of desire
so constrained
so tender
so lost.
_______________
Stephanie Barber is an artist living in Baltimore, MD. Her chapbook poems was published by Bronze Skull Press in 2006 and her book these here separated… was reprinted in 2010 by Publishing Genius Press, who have also published her recent book Night Moves. Her videos are distributed by Video Data Bank and her films are distributed by Canyon Cinema and Fandor.com. More can be learned at her website stephaniebarber.com/.
