Re-Deal

 

 

Re-Deal

 

  

I don't feel like feeling. 

No feel for the last day I felt. 

 

A day dealt so poorly

I demand a re-deal, an extra shuffle. 

 

And with my new hand,

joy comes so hard I cannot bluff it. 

 

My royal red flush, my beggar's blush,

and I felt good laying my cards

 

one by one

across green felt.

 

 

Sam Barbee

 

                     

Sam Barbee has a new collection, Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing).  He has three previous poetry collections, including That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), which was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016.  Also, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag) which chronicles family travels in England. 

 His poems have appeared recently in Salvation South, Literary Yard, Snapdragon, Asheville Poetry Review, and Adelaide Literary Magazine, Ariel Chart Journal, Poetry South, among others; plus on-line journals American Diversity Report, Verse Virtual, The Voices Project, and Medusa’s Kitchen; and is a two-time Pushcart nominee.