Explore "Tom Beatty" by Edgar Lee Masters on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I was a lawyer like Harmon Whitney / Or Kinsey Keene or Garrison Standard, / For I tried the rights of property, / Although by lamp-light, for thirty years, / In that poker room in the opera house.
And I say to you that Life's a gambler / Head and shoulders above us all.
No mayor alive can close the house.
And if you lose, you can squeal as you will;
You'll not get back your money.
He makes the percentage hard to conquer;
He stacks the cards to catch your weakness / And not to meet your strength.
And he gives you seventy years to play:
For if you cannot win in seventy / You cannot win at all.
So, if you lose, get out of the room --
Get out of the room when your time is up.
It's mean to sit and fumble the cards, / And curse your losses, leaden-eyed, / Whining to try and try.