Priceless Ace of Diamonds
In my soul there rests a card,
one I hesitate to play.
Not because it’s far too strong,
but I am too far gone.
A lonely spade;
A shredded club;
A tattered heart;
I sway, my love,
for I’ve but one prize to claim:
my priceless ace of diamonds.
Don’t take this from me, I beseech thee,
I can’t bear that pain…
but what use is a perfect ace
if it’s only for display?
What, then…
Do I raise the stakes,
and hope the goddess of fate
deals a better hand than yesterday?
If I don’t play,
I can’t win, eh?
Isn’t that what they say?
Well… either way,
no matter the game,
the cards I hold are the same.
It’s just a shame
I never learned how to play.
Back when I still did Poetry Compilations, I had a mini-set going with the ‘Ace of’ cards. However, I never got around to the Ace of Diamonds. Now, since it’s Ace Week, I figured it’d be thematically appropriate to finish what I started back in 2020.
The first three poems, along with their respective sources, are included below. I thought about editing them… but I decided against it, due to a neat (albeit unintended) side effect of me being scatter-brained: this is also a great illustration of the way my writing style has developed over the past two years.
Hearts introduced the concept and basic formula. Spades played it safe and stuck to the same flow, but I played a bit with the rhyme count and grammar. Clubs is where things began to get more experimental, but in retrospect, I don’t think the second half turned out quite right. To be fair to my past self though, ‘clubs’ isn’t an easy rhyme to work with if you’re trying to be symbolic. As for Diamonds… well, I’ll let you be the judge.
Tattered Ace of Hearts
June 2020
In my hand’s a tattered card
which I dare not play.
Last time I showed off this card,
they tossed it away.
They don’t understand nor see
how precious this card is to me,
it’s part of my identity.
I can’t let it go,
not when I know
you’ll just tear it apart,
my tattered ace of hearts.
Lonely Ace of
Spades
April 2021
Out there is a lonely card,
deeply caked in dusty flakes.
Last time I had seen this card,
my hand was lost in rising stakes.
By the end I could not see
where this precious card could be;
so lost was I in enmity.
Where’d it go?
I don’t know…
Forever lost within the shade,
my lonely ace of spades.
Shredded Ace of Clubs
September 2021
On the ground’s a shredded card
which I never got to play.
How it ended up this way…
that, I dare not say.
I guess it doesn’t really matter.
Either way, the card is battered,
its tiny pieces scattered,
soon to be carried off
by the callous winds of fate,
never to be seen again.
Sure, I could buy another…
but it won’t be the same.
How could I ever replace
this card which was
from my hands untimely plucked,
my shredded ace of clubs?
Tyler DeWriter 