Poem for the Day: Poker Machines

poker machines

make the darkness light up

it’s a garden of handiwork

screens nothing but a scene

letters    cockatoos   kookaburras

laughing overhead   the poker

truth of music   colour dazzle   happy not

choosing nothing   not even luck

the right hand punches the gloss

notes sidestep   meals   mum & the kids 

your small pocket changes men

in moonlight   black suits holding champagne flutes

your caprice is the roll & drop   of heavy breath

plastic cards discharge

dollars roll down five “K’s”   free spins

peachy!   drizzle more money

into this bird island

no-man’s land that saps

your speech      your time

your path to recovery