This poem is taken from PN Review 240, Volume 44 Number 4, March - April 2018.
Two Poems
The Card Players (1966–73)
Mesdames, Messieurs
the empty chair awaits you:
first come, first served
to your left, a trickster
card sharp,
to your right
a fortune teller
of the past, lying
ahead of you,
like a dream, a store
of menace, bought into
like a Ponzi scheme.
Watch your back,
Balthus invites you
to a game of cards,
...
Mesdames, Messieurs
the empty chair awaits you:
first come, first served
to your left, a trickster
card sharp,
to your right
a fortune teller
of the past, lying
ahead of you,
like a dream, a store
of menace, bought into
like a Ponzi scheme.
Watch your back,
Balthus invites you
to a game of cards,
...
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