Don’t Trip

Flow charts and legal pads
Horizontally banded, ruled

wrangle your marks

Around and round we go
Clutching talismans
Soot-crusted die

with the even numbers smudged out

Roll roll roll rolling
Roll them clean

but they might brush clean

on the cast and roll

If you want to take that plunge
Pin-rolled clean
Scores etched in
Cheat sheets sorted by disease
Brand name or generic

but the ink runs together

When wet, stamps licked
And a copper spoon held under your tongue

just so

Rust-pocked
Mind your shadow
don’t trip your stare