He passes the wheel and croupier in a single stride;
Indifferently tosses a chip onto zero;
Winks at bejewelled, matronly, Countess DeVeaux;
Locks eyes with a leggy brunette and sits by her side.
With two fingers on the green felt, he passes the clue:
A mathmatical formula etched on rice paper,
Folded into a fierce origami tiger.
She learns it by heart (two seconds and she’s through);
She crumples the note and pops it in her mouth.
With a swig of her gimlet, it’s gone in a breath.
Empires plundered the continents of the South
With this elegant tradecraft, this effortless virtuosity;
Revolutionaries were caught, and tortured to death,
And famines rained on the dry lands of poverty.