Thursday, October 14, 2010

Card Shark Day!

He's a card shark mama. He can pull into town and rob every table blind and they don't know what hit em until he's already on the train. He once left a table with seventeen thousand dollars in his pocket, all won through dishonest means. He's got suits with more pockets than I got pores on my skin. He's been shot at twice, strung up to be hanged once even but his Mexican compadre at the time rode in and saved the day with the swipe of a hatchet. He can bluff his way into heaven and out of hell, I swear to you mama. And he wants to marry me. Me! Oh mama, I know he seems all flash and pin stripes, but once you get to know him you'll see that it's only to throw off the stink of poverty he's carried with him ever since his childhood working on the river. He's just trying to make a better life for himself mama. Isn't that what we're all trying to do? He just happens to make his by dealing from the bottom of the deck and shoving jacks inside the double lining on his jacket. Is that so much different from you or me?

"It's very different from you or me," Mama will say. "You made a better life for yourself by starting your own new media advertising firm specializing in pharma. And I made a better life for myself by being Lynn L Elsenhans, President, Chairman and CEO of Sunoco."

He said you'd react this way mama. He said you'd tell me all about what a different class of man he is than you or me. He said you'd say your full name like I hadn't heard it over and over again on 60 Minutes. But he gave me something that don't care about class Mama. He gave me a gift that don't care about banner ads for drug companies or oil company fortunes. He gave me a child. I'm pregnant mama. I'm pregnant with his baby and it's a boy. A Boy mama! I'm gonna have a card shark's son, and there's nothing you or Daddy can do about it.

"Like hell," Mama will say. "I am Lynn L Elsenhans, President, Chairman and CEO of fucking Sunoco! And you, young lady, are going to get an abortion! Guards!"

Mama's guards will grab you by the arms and drag you to the abortion clinic in the basement of the Sunoco building. As you're dragged away, Mama will mutter under her breath, "Lynn L fuckin Elsenhans. President, Chairman, and goddamn CEO. Mother-in-law to a goddamn card shark? Pish."

Happy Card Shark Day!