Monday, November 9, 2015

Cheaters Never Win

Delores who writes the blog, Under the Porch Light, gives writing prompts for her readers to use as a jumping off spot for their writing. I decided to play along. One of the prompts she gave last week was to use this list of words: cards, dangerous, flip, glance, sputter, and cowardly. I used them in the poem below. I put them in italics so they'd be easier to see. I thought the resulting poem was over dramatic and comical, which was not my intention, but I had fun trying to make the words work for me. If you need inspiration and want to have some fun with your writing, visit Under the Porch Light on Thursdays and try out one of the writing prompts that Delores provides.

Cheaters Never Win 

Smelling of smoke, leather, and whiskey,
five rugged cowhands sit at a bar room table
and hold close the cards they've been dealt.

Jed, with a furtive glance
and a flip of his wrist,
swigs back another belt.

Never known to be cowardly,
he slips an ace from his sleeve, 
lays his hand down, (Jed treads on dangerous ground).

"YOU'RE A CHEATER, JED JONES!" Frank bellows 
as he bangs his fist on the table.
He begins to sputter and swing his gun around.

Jed leaps to his feet and runs for the door.
Frank shoots without blinking an eye.
Jed falls and lies still on the hard, cold floor.

With a sinister grin, Frank drawls,
"Cheaters never win and sometimes...they die.
So long, Jed Jones. Goodbye."

12 comments:

  1. Put a melody to it and you've got a country song! (i like it.)

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  2. I love it. This is so lively, Daisy, and I'm laughing. And he dies - ironic (given it's so lively and humorous). Amazing where the creative juices flow when working with prompts. I hope you'll keep doing these exercises.

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  3. Aha! Good one, Daisy! I love it!

    We should go and hustle at a few tables, you and me! lol

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  4. Stunning piece of writing. I can't stand cheaters... had far too much experience with them.

    Definitely visiting Under the Porch Light this Thursday.. thank you for the recommendation!

    www.bohemianmuses.blogspot.com

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  5. Wow, love this Daisy. You did an awesome job.Hope you have a nice week.

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  6. Anonymous11/10/2015

    Terrific...of course...sometimes cheaters win lol. So glad you joined in and had some fun with the words.

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  7. quite amusing and a step away from your style. Glad you had fun with Delores' prompts. Her blog is awesome

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  8. You used the words very well, Daisy! Quite an interesting poem!

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  9. You certainly did a creative job with the words provided, Daisy. The resulting poem was entertaining, even if the outcome wasn't so good for poor Jed.

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  10. Ohhh, love it - great use of the words. I have been sitting on a poem for years since 1987 that I wrote for my dad. It contains a few of these words and it is about a card game where the last Ace shown won the game...

    I love this poem of yours.

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  11. That was very good. Dramatic indeed but the words demanded that. Loved it.

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  12. Thank you, everyone! I had fun playing around with this exercise.

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