Dead Man’s Hand, An All-Hallowed Eve’s Night of Poker #halloween

Dead Man’s Hand
An All-Hallowed Eve’s Night of Poker

On a long ago, unforgettable Halloween night,
an ominous moon hung over Deadwood, a town
carved from the Black Hills of Dakota Territory.

It was a spine-chilling eve fraught with tension.
The streets were empty and eerily silent,
like spider web memories of a ghost town.

In the Nuttals & Mann Main Street Saloon,
the bartender was pouring rounds of whiskey
for the boys playing high stakes poker.

There was a table in the corner of the room.
with every chair occupied, save one, as it
was for the gunman shot dead in that chair.

The bar room was dripping with anticipation.
Then it happened! The saloon door flew open,
but no one walked in. Trail dust filled the air.

Hollow sounds of boots and spurs were heard.
The empty chair jerked back with a loud screech,
and a poker hand was tossed on the wood table.

Two pair, Aces and Eights, were showing,
and a fifth card face down with a drop of blood;
the hand played by The Gunslinger of Death!

The boys questioned, “Is that you Wild Bill?”
Two silver plated Colt pistols fell on the table;
smoking, macabre remnants of what used to be.

The faces of the poker players drained of color,
as the empty chair moved back into place.
Wild Bill had come to finally hang up his guns!

Sheila Bowyer Kline