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enjoy this Christopher Hivner writing in the Scars Publications free 2016 PDF file chapbook: The Corrosion (click on the front cover image or the title text to download the free PDF file)				You can also order this as a 2016 6" x 9" perfect-bound paperback ISBN# book! Click on the book cover & order The Corrosion as a full color cover book today!

The Back Room, 3:23 a.m.

Christopher Hivner

Three aces
stared back at him.
Two were face down,
looking up through the gauze
of red cherubs and fleur-de-lis.
The third lay up on the table,
winking,
the way a good hand does,
enticing you to bet.
But he played it cool,
saw the current money, no raise.
He needed the fourth ace,
then he would raise and raise big,
and win,
for the first time in a long time.
“You hear that, Trish?”
he gloated silently to his ex-wife.
The Loser is going to win,
the Loser is going to take a chance
for once.
The Loser . . . got an eight.
It’s ok,
one more down card to come,
just see the bet, stay in the game.
“That’s right, Patricia,
I’m in the game.”
The Loser’s in the game.
Poker face firmly in place,
courage tucked away in reserve.
Here comes the ace of diamonds.
Oh, isn’t it beautiful,
glowing red,
like the center of a flame.
“I never bought you a real diamond”
he thinks softly to his ex,
but you’re buying me one.
He raises the bet,
alimony money into the center of the table.
Three players drop out.
Showdown.
Another raise.
No new clothes, Trish,
next month’s alimony into the pot.
He turns his cards over,
one at a time, trying not to smile.
One ace after another, set up in a row
like ducks at a shooting gallery.
He stares lustily at
the mound of money on the table
but his head is pierced
by Patricia’s shrill laughter and his eyes
are drawn to
the other player’s cards.
He blinks, but they don’t change,
straight flush.
“But that’s not possible”
he mews openly
as his money is swept away
by two hard, raw forearms.
and his aces
wink at him.

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