Raise You One

Description: an analogy of two people playing a game of poker to win the attention of a third party. The prize is the love of someone. The idea is that the speaker is playing bluff in a game to win the man (or woman, if you see it from a guy's perspective) for herself, over her opponent that all rests on this one hand.

Raise You One

Hysterical laugh
The ridiculous irony
The final act has dropped the curtain on me
You’ve been dealt that single spaded ace
That completes my winning hand.
My saving grace

Staring laser holes into the card you hold
Read my iron face.
I won’t fold.

I meet your bet and raise you one
It’ll all or nothing once this is done.
I’m playing for more than coins and bills
I threw my heart in the pot.
Dealer deals.

Chips are on the table
Seconds tick away
Outside: not a twitch – it’s a fatal game I play
Inside: panic shakes me as I toss in my final buck
Wait for you to call it
– In bondage to my luck

Stare with greed and covet
That paper card you hold
Pounding blood.
Release a breath
Calmly watch you fold

Without a word.
Without a sound
I lay my worthless hand
- Faces down
Steady my trembling fingers
Gather up my winnings
Silently toast that spaded ace
- Here’s to new beginnings

It’s all or nothing once this is done
Gambled with my heart and won

It’s all or nothing once this is done
I’ll meet your bet and raise you one.