Michael Steffen
Photo of GIs Playing Poker at a VFW Post
Briefly, the camera halts their game—
in an upturned fan of cards, the king of hearts
pushing a blade through his crowned head.
Why does he do this—kill himself
again and again, his benevolent gaze
fading into the jungle green
between the peanuts and stale beer?
The four old grunts at the table know,
but they're not talking—I get the impression
they never spoke of what they survived
in the rice paddies and high hills of their own
dire and baffling summers—four faces slightly
out of focus, blank as an empty noose,
chips piled up like corpses.
Bio
Michael Steffen's fourth collection of poems, Blood Narrative, was published in 2021 by Main Street Rag Press. New work has recently appeared, or will appear soon, in Book of Matches, The Chaffin Journal and Literary Cocktail Magazine. Michael is an MFA graduate from Vermont College and currently lives in Buffalo, NY.