A little girl, a score minus four,

the milk of puberty still coursing

through her tender body;

heeded the command of her mother

that she play a game of jacks.

And so the effervescent teenager

tossed the jacks that scattered before her

on her nuptial bed.

Terror took hold of her

as she pondered her next move –

she had not been taught the rules of the game.

With patience and bemusement

the jurismother sent her off to school

to learn the bridal graces

where this precocious teen

learned she could call “Overs”

but once in the game.

Thus, to the bridal chamber she returned,

looked with sheepish wonder at the lie of her throw;

she wanted to pick the jacks up

but they lay ever so close;

her breath shortened as her heart

beat the rhythm of the incantation;

her mind restricted her muscles

from enabling the mouth to speak.

It took her several years to gather the jacks

and ball and flee across the ocean

where she envisioned a better lie.

Now a mother in a strange land,

she cast the jacks again –

she picked them up with ease

and moved to the next round.

The second throw sent jacks

crashing to the floor –

now the twice bride must forfeit

the round or invoke the blessed phrase.

Her heart imploded in despair –

her mind reminded her she was now

a mother twice – duty must guide

her every move.

Like Ali Baba before the enchanted pass,

she was about to say the word

when another showed her a middle way –

how the medicinal arts could enable her

to pick up the jacks from bed and floor –

thus it was she made it to the third round.

Caught now between two worlds,

two-score minus four, the nouveau woman

cast the jacks into the fourth round.

This time the jacks scattered ever so far apart.

defeated, she questioned the stars above –

wondered what right she had to hope;

she had safety and convenience –

who could ask for more?

Once again her mind counseled invocation,

her heart wavered at the thought.

Yet, she was tired of the game –

frustrated that her dreams were all deferred –

the Great Romance a moving mirage.

Resigned to her fate,

She prepared to say the word.

Twas then her mouth was silenced

by an imprudent kiss from an Invisible Man.

He picked up her jacks and ball,

Compressed them into a necklace

Which he draped around her neck.

Without thought or feeling or plan

as if a cough from deepest soul,

she whispered softly the word, Overs!”

Bringing to an end the game of jacks

and commencing for once the game of life.