Casino Pantoum

by Sara Backer

A red Mercedes spins

and spins on top of slot machines.

Oranges and cherries make faces for coins.

Cherries score change but no one wins the car.

A man leaves a spinning slot machine

to put coins in a telephone.

He has exact change, he has a red car,

yet he shares his room with a dial tone.

He gambles on the telephone

for a woman found in a classified ad.

He hangs up at the dial tone,

afraid of an answering machine.

She put herself in a personal ad:

single, busy, desperately self-confident.

Afraid of strange men, she uses a machine

to save calls from strange men.

Married once long ago and lonely,

she keeps her car doors locked,

afraid of men. Waiting for a stranger's call,

she plays computer solitaire, game after game.

Keeping his convertible locked,

his face the face of coins,

the man turns to video solitaire--just one more game--

while no one wins. The red Mercedes spins and spins.