Cupid Playing Cards

Peter Wilhelm

After Lohn Lyly (1554-1606)
(for Patrick Cullinan)

They played cards for kisses, Cupid and my love:
I watched, I always watched: pimp to the dishonour.
And he won, I guess; he knew his game, of love,
Of how to rake up the stake, to throw in all the aerial shit
Of sparrows and doves, prepared to lose them all,
All that extraneous treasure, tossed off willy-nilly.
Until he played himself, his fabulous gloss and charisma:
Those sweetie-pie lips and down-curved reddish flush
Of passion and pale forehead sweetly sweating,
And everything under that poised and unctuous and
So sexy! And the bitch won them all! Or so you’d say,
If you didn’t notice how he took her off in a curvy arm
And gave his love to her, to her, to her —
Well, that was her effect, you know, love blinding back,
And all that leaves me now is — love and loss, and want.

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