Warner James Wood
Contest - 3rd Place
Warner James Wood graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Human Evolutionary Biology before completing his MFA in poetry at the University of Michigan’s Helen Zell Writers’ Program. He now lives in New York City.
A game of hold ‘em
We played hold ‘em
by the campfire,
my brother and I.
The only rule is no
one walks away richer,
he said, with a drink
by the deck. He won
every hand, but kept
me in play. You’d worry
the brass horns off a monkey,
he’d say, when I decided
to bet or check. Happy
as a dead pig in the sun,
when he’d rake in the chips
after a bluff. And when
I tried to tell him
what he’d heard about me—
how my mouth had changed shape
in the dark with a boy—
he nodded his head
as for a passing,
and looked to the lakebed
where the water flattened down
and everything—everything—
was simple.
by the campfire,
my brother and I.
The only rule is no
one walks away richer,
he said, with a drink
by the deck. He won
every hand, but kept
me in play. You’d worry
the brass horns off a monkey,
he’d say, when I decided
to bet or check. Happy
as a dead pig in the sun,
when he’d rake in the chips
after a bluff. And when
I tried to tell him
what he’d heard about me—
how my mouth had changed shape
in the dark with a boy—
he nodded his head
as for a passing,
and looked to the lakebed
where the water flattened down
and everything—everything—
was simple.