The Gambler

A gambler, you made me,
Sent into this marketplace.
Your game, your rules,
Your results, your stage—
And I, spellbound.
Amidst it all,
Spreading a smoky haze, intoxicating all.

Somewhere, a game unfolds,
Elsewhere, songs and dances sway,
And in another corner—mere spectacle.
Some laugh in carefree bursts,
Others roar in delight—
While some sit silent,
And others, lost in thought.
While your unerring gaze
Slices through it all.

The world, wrapped in a drunken fog,
Knows no thought, no hope—
Only the addiction to loss.

I lose and lose again,
And still, you play.
A strange design
This game you weave.

Where did you learn,

this strange game?
From where did you bring

This, beguiling art?

I wonder—
Did you once,
In some long-forgotten hour,
Stand where I now fall? 

Somewhere, sometime,
Were but a gambler yourself?