Sleight of Hand

[Lightning Rod]

pick a card any card
let me convince you
that you have a choice

any parlor magician knows
that you can force the card
there is no choice

pick a card any card
choose your parents
choose divorce
choose disease
or accident
choose the weather
pick a card any card

the magician wants to
baffle and elude
he wants to stifle and delude
you have a choice
to look here or here
watch the hands
not the fingers
pick a card any card

the lovely assistant
is only a distraction
like mirrors and hollow boxes
bump you on the shoulder
and take your wallet
pick a card any card

[Doreen Peri]

good one!

I like it! an ace of a poem

I wrote a poem by the same title years ago.... 1999 or 2000 ... I can't find it, dammit.

Fricking computers. The searches really don't work all that well. I mean, back then, I was impeccable with my archiving. I named the file the name of the poem and I dated it. But my mac's taken a crap. Oh well.

It's a good theme.

Abracadabra!

I've probably sliced myself in half and made myself disappear more times than I can count in poetry. Sighhh

I love the carnival imagery.

After all, we're all in a room with funny mirrors which makes everything look askew so it fits with real life.

Card tricks are a fave, too. Nothing up my sleeve. Believe me.

[Lightning Rod]

Abracadabra
Abracadab
Abracada, Abracad
Abraca, Abra, Ab
Abracadabra
Abracadab--Bierce

you're a tricky one doreen
I've got a poem about everything too
and I can't find it either

(look next to your sunglasses...haha)

[constantine]

good stuff. the last verse is very well done - as all of it is.

[Doreen Peri]

I found it. I spelled the title wrong in my files which is why I couldn't find it. There it was, just as you said, next to my sunglasses and car keys. LOL!

June 1999. I wonder if my writing is still this bad.

Sleight of Hand

As the magician's wand
weaves wild in the shape of infinity,
the buxom long-legged
sequined concubine disappears
without a hitch --
and you are not unscathed,
despite the mirror's tricks.

The silver-tongued
shaman spews omens
laced with prophecy as if
forecasting rain --
a sorcerer to enrapture
souls to shame and romance;
his crystal ball
reflects a
nymphalid butterfly,
migratory legs too useless
for walking.
His voice to me
is obviously unwise,
yet you believe
his lies.

And soon the painted lady
urges you to view the silver balls
chasing vacant upside-down cups
'round a table decorated with
guilt and sin,
as dollars drain
from pockets toward the
game you cannot win.

Do not believe impostor's tricks.
They'll take you in and suck the
blood out of your skin;
their smooth slippery scams
will erode your soul.
So glib they are in
fortunes told.

"We can see your future!
You will win the prize,"
they say,
until they find your
pockets empty, then
their forecast changes
with tornadoes looming.

Do not believe the liars
who enchant you with assuming
to the music of
an orchestrated band.
They will deceive with
sleight of hand
and drain your pockets dry.
With offhand talk,
meticulously articulated,
mirrors, tricks and schemes --
there's some who stalk
the weak and easily
dupe you with a lie
until your soul is lost
in world's unseen.

6/4/99

[hester_prynne]

Indeed, do we pick the card or does the card pick us....
Fantastic write as usual LRod.
When will your book be finished? I want one for sure.
H

[Lightning Rod]

damn, doreen
are we going to get into copyright issues over this title?
or is the term 'sleight of hand' in the public domain?

maybe I'll just spell it 'slight' haha

[Lightning Rod]

Indeed, do we pick the card or does the card pick us....
Fantastic write as usual LRod.
When will your book be finished? I want one for sure.
H

http://cafepress.com/lrod

the next one is on the way
pick a card any card

[Doreen Peri]

damn, doreen
are we going to get into copyright issues over this title?
or is the term 'sleight of hand' in the public domain?

maybe I'll just spell it 'slight' haha

No. I was just sharing my poem.

what the heck are you talking about?

Is that supposed to be funny?

I thought you might like to read my poem by the same title and maybe even comment on the poem.

Oh well.

[Lightning Rod]

you know that I'm always trying to be funny, doreen
(I know I don't always make it)

I thought that your poem (which I have read at least three times over the years) was the perfect compliment to mine or maybe mine was a compliment to yours, who knows?

illusion is the perfect metaphor for metaphors
magic is poetry
no, wait
maybe poetry is magic
which hand was it in?
which shell was it under?
it's all illusion

[Doreen Peri]

Sorry, I didn't know I shared that poem with you before.

Glad you liked it.

Peace.

[Arcadia]

we have a too long truco game here in the newspapers, tv and sometimes in the streets and routes since the end of march... I´ll finally have to learn how to play it in order to not be bored... damn!

beautiful poems!!!!!!

[Doreen Peri]

I stole Lightning Rod's poem title.

It was a cheap slick sleight-of-hand parlor game trick.

I managed to steal it 9 years before he wrote it.

shhhhh.....

[Lightning Rod]

yer a card, doreen
pick a card any card

[hester_prynne]

Slight of hand
by Hester Prynne

Aye sir Dimmesdale,
indeed,
you doth pickethed
a card,
but,
can't you see I am tired
of hiding you,
you there
in your church of men,
me wearing the A
that you put there,
remaining sweet
remaining silent
indeed more than
a chillingsworth,
but priceless as a pearl
here in your eden
of hypocrisy,
and plastic gardens,
growing botox,
alongside the viagra,
if you saw
what I really see
perhaps it would be
slight of mind,
castrated fingers,
bound, gagged,
squirming,
hate is love
love is hate,
and the observers
cry silently,
politely,
into their tear-stained
pillows.