Should you lose your marbles in this game
Done down by bones or dice
Don’t expect rose comfits on The House
Rivals’ ‘compassion’ in confetti from their stack
But elevated birth entitles them
To station purchased of their favoured friends
So you must stoop and call
Upon the gods alone
As sole support in the world –
And they remain invisible
Fortune rigs her wheel to dupe the mark
Charms him with her whirlpool drum of numbers
Every revolution red and black
Seems a new machine –
Some stake world-possession against Venus
Lady Luck brings on her sombre sister
Fata Morgana in the mirror-ball
Seeking from each gaze her best reflection –
Veteran singers of songs
Strike their aching strings
To render Mesopotamian/
Macedonian Homesick Blues
Sirens on the Silk Road
How may a slave succeed
Unless his songs’ simplicities
Outstrip intrepid tongues?
.
Bernard Saint
Illustration: Claire Palmer
.