Life Lesson At The Lone Pine Saloon Poem by Allan Thorne

One night
I watched a pool shark
Take this guy’s entire paycheck
One game at a time
Over the course of
A long evening.

A pool shark will never
Beat you by more than a ball or two.
He doesn’t want to kill your hope.
He wants you to keep playing.
He wants you to think that it was all luck
Next time things will be different.
He wants you to double the bet
And try again.


By the end the looser
Was very drunk
And lacking any money to go on
Stated a fight.
The pool shark picked up
A pool ball and
Calmly, professionally,
Beat the looser
Unconscious.
Clok! Clok! Thud!

That’s why they tell you these stories
These Cinderella stories
They want you to keep trying
Just a bit longer.
There is still a little more
They can get out of you
Before the beating begins.