Cave of Sighs

I gaped up at the great square cavernous maw
inviting me deep within a Platonic carnival
enticing me with its electrically amusing power,
bidding me entry into its splendor of ersatz delights.
I bought a ticket for the flick,
but did not like it and

I let the the near casino magenetize my nerves of steel thereinto.
The metallic shrieks of flickering coinage
won and lost,
peirced my ears against my head.
I feared being crushed by the surrounding
quicksilvered sights and
leadened sounds that
lowered upon me as if made of shredded tornadic clouds.

With bated breath I scuttled inward,
as an anxious insect would,
through the crystal doors
held passively open
by impassive
red uniformed clones.

I sucked in miasmas of
Parision misted bodies,
gagged upon
Manhatten soaked cigarettes,
choked on
Pittsburgh plastic off-gasses,
and it was during this chatoic sense confusion
that I saw the sparkling blue marble dancing inside the silver roulette wheel.

But I looked away to another table
and saw the croupier, who said,
with a nervous gun to his head,
"Merci, please hurry, Monsieur Zed.
I do believe that it's your deal."

I heard again the agate ball as it stumbled,
skidded and rolled to a stop behind me.
I turned back to watch it drop in double noughts.
I then felt the droplets of the saintly blood
make snake-eyed spots on the dice in my hand.

What a foolish wager; our money or our lives
what a heavy cost, wanting life when dead.
These were my thoughts.

At the last click of the ratchet we had placed our last Liberty on red.
We bet and we lost!