Johnny Figueroa

I stand face to face with my opponent

I stare directly at him, he is nothing but a simple man

I take a deep breath preparing for the moment at hand

I shuffle my cards as swiftly as the breeze around me

I place my cards on the table, they lay there without any motion 

I stare back at him noticing that none of us are expressing any emotion

I hear nothing but the sound of whispers around me

All this time we haven't said a word

All this time and we haven’t played a card

All this time and I know this game won’t be hard

All this time has gone by and my victory has already been secured

All this time has gone by and his defeat is nothing but assured

We reach for our cards

We each draw five as it is the only play

We finally begin and with a smile we say:

LET’S DUEL!

Author's Commentary

My inspiration for this poem came from my interest and love for card games, especially the Yu-Gi-Oh card game, as well as how you can never really know what will happen in a game of Yu-Gi-Oh. During quarantine I started getting back into the card game as I had a lot of time in my hands, and up to this point in time I have not stopped playing it (I think I’m addicted). I structured this poem by simply using repetition at the beginning of each line for each different stanza, each stanza was progressively smaller than the previous one.

Feedback

I like the serious tone of the poem, especially since it's based on a card game. I think the rhyming and the alliteration build up the suspense towards the end. Overall I enjoyed the poem and I couldn't help but think about the old Tv show while reading.

--Lee Barrera

I found the repetition the author used to be effective and have a flow to it. I like how he explained from drawing his cards he already knew he won before the duel begin. The imagery used by the author was also effective as it helped me picture the card game.

--Issaih Grande