I have a long history of cheating.
Real cheating. Stacking the deck
in CandyLand at age four. Stealing
my brother’s stuffed pig and naming it
after him as if that were payment.
Borrowing lines from other poets
as if I could make them my own.
But ah, then it gets fuzzy: Writing
clever answers on tests because I couldn’t
grasp the real ones. Sleeping with other
men’s girlfriends. Do these things count?
I certainly got credit for them.
Am I proud? Perhaps. Of some. But
mostly I have never been a good
loser. Better to change the rules
than to throw the game, I say.
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I like this - simple and to the point, terse and effective. The first stanza can go, methinks.
ReplyDelete"today" was anticlimactic... I feel like something is missing from the end - i dont want to rewrite your thought, but maybe something that justified the cheating more, like "i've always hated losing" (not those words obviously, more of a thought suggestion). as it is, the end reads a little too muddled for me...
other than that, definitely enjoyed.
You are right about the first stanza and the last line... I'm going to fix them right now and then you tell me if it's any better.
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