Poem Bale Four Me and Sophia at the Track and Other Poems regarding Horseplayer Luck and Lack of It

By Thomas M. McDade

Forty-three poems surrounding the Sport of Kings and the commoners it makes of many participants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Thomas M. McDade
• Release date: Aug 9, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310547096

Thomas M. McDade

Thomas M. McDade is a seventy-seven-year-old former programmer/analyst residing in Fredericksburg, VA, previously, in CT & RI. He's married, has no kids, and no pets. McDade is a 1973 graduate of Fairfield University. He served two tours of duty in the U.S. Navy. [e-mail]

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Title Page & Licensing Notes

Poem Bale Four Me and Sophia at the Track and Other Poems Regarding Horseplayer Luck and Lack of It

By Thomas M. McDade

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Thomas M. McDade

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to the following publications that have published many of these poems:

Blind Horse Review, Blind Man’s Rainbow, Chiron Review, E Pluribus Aluminum, Fifth Gear, Fight These Bastards, Pawtucket Times, Pitchfork, Potpourri, Scissors and Spackle, Standard Deviations, Thin Coyote, Thrill and Swill, Village Idiot

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Preface

I’ve seen ‘em in limousines,

With rocks on their dukes

And dough in their jeans,

But they’re all alike

When they quit their scenes—

All hoss players must die broke!

—Damon Runyon

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Poems 1-23

Me and Sofia at the Track

Pay Attention

Cost of Living

Retrieval

Listening

Workouts

Stopwatches

Ill Gotten Gains

Off Track Betting

The Chicken Method

Disasters Large & Small

Lucky Day

Cadillacs

Charles Town, WV

Saratoga

Dentistry

Desertion

Hi-Ho Silverheels

Lunch Special

The Parable of Joe Bannon

Yarak

Reverse

Longchamps

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Poems (24-41)

Hunches

Red Flying Robin

Rock’s Rocks

Goldiner Stern

Warwick Castle

Thumbs

Scarlet Nan

Spicy Tour

Naturalist

Perversity

Absence

Deidre the Daughter

Tallymead Pip

Atomic Jet

Stash

Exacta Boxed

Mary Bacon

Precipitation

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Me and Sophia at the Track

Morning workouts are underway, a Marriage Italian Style

scene is filming at the Ippodromo di Agnano in Naples.

Hoofbeats of pacers and trotters echo in the empty stands

as Sophia runs up cement stairs, scarf trailing off handbag,

the colors of an empire wooing her to accept its throne.

The simple grey skirt gracing so plainly magnificent a vision,

is so splendidly regal for the common bench she chooses it is startling

that neither gild nor velvet is shamed into service.

She loops her fingers into pretend binoculars

before Marcello places a hand on a masterpiece

of knee and plants a lusty kiss on lips that render even

routine subtitles luxurious.

Thoroughbreds in session, my sun-drenched day there

and all seating