The Cards You've Been Dealt - 03/24/03 (revised 11/06/03)

The Jokers run wild, merely present for sport,
Only there for a fleeting good time.
In bed when you want them, gone when you need them;
Faint touches are all that remain.

The Queens? Somewhat stable, comparatively,
But massacred if found by the King.
The marriage improbable (and so more impossible),
It's off with Queen Mary's dark head.

The Jack? Oh, that's you, darling, bloody and bruised:
The colors just give it away.
Well-suited to suffering, intent upon smiling,
You'll play this game out to the end.

And now, to take all the fun out of interpreting for yourself...

Beginning Notes: This is supposed to be read as if written by a teenage boy to another boy.

Stanza One: The Jokers are the recipient's past lovers. They are there for sex, but when the recipient needs them on a deeper level they disappear.

Stanza Two: The Queens (Line 1) are the recipient's gay male friends. Compared to the Jokers, they are more stable and there for him more often. The King is the recipient's homophobic father (Line 2). Line 3 plays on the idea of a true King and Queen marrying, but addresses the fact that the father is homophobic and as this Queen is male the match would not work. The idea of gay marriage is merely that in most places--an idea. It is illegal in all states and most countries, and that is why the writer calls it impossible in Line 3. In Line 4, Queen Mary (chosen because Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded) represents the gay individual being harmed by the father. The adjective "dark" to describe this person refers to another one of the King's prejudices--racism.

Stanza Three: The term "darling" in Line 1 makes the reader assume that the writer is very familiar with the recipient. The words "bloody" and "bruised" lead the reader to believe that it is not only the recipient's friends that his father hates and hurts, but the recipient himself as well. In Line 2, the colors spoken of refer to black and red, the two colors of a deck of cards. Red represents the blood in the previous line while black represents the bruises. In Line 3 there is a play on words--"well-suited" where "suit" can refer to a suit of cards (clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades). In Line 3 it is also shown that while the recipient is suffering, he is used to it and smiles at all those around him to hide his true feelings. The final line, Line 4, shows how despite his unhappiness, the recipient deals with his lot in life, perhaps merely out of helpless defiance.