Friday, July 3, 2009



Lesson 5: Poetry on Gambling

Tom Beatty and The Rocking Horse Winner
"He stacks the cards to catch your weakness". Paul has a weakness: His family had "not enough money". He finds it hard to stop gambling because he knows that he gambles for the sake of his family. It is the stress made by the house that keeps him from stopping. From the wins, he believed that the rocking horse in his house was lucky and if he was to sit on it and rock, he would definitely win when betting for the next race. It was also the same horse when he got possessed and fainted, leading to his death a few days later. "And he gives you seventy years to play", but Paul had much lesser time. Yes, even for this, he was lucky. "It’s mean to sit and fumble the cards,
and curse your losses, leaden-eyed, whining to try and try." No doubt, if Paul was to live up to an old ripe age, he would be gambling all the way up, gambling away his life.

The Green Clothes and Paper
Colourful tips from Dr. Soo and his wife. Dry lips after losing. Green clothes, envy, greed and money, was what Tay Soon and Yee Lian saw when Dr. Soo earned quick money by investing into shares. The next natural action was obviously to follow suit. Then came the downward slide. Their gains were pared to marginal. However, they did not pull out. They had "the blazing desire to win back". "And all that was spent in vain." They decided to invest all the money in OHTE and West Parkes. However, to their dismay, both crashed shortly after. For gambling, that is the final outcome. Losing.

One-Dollar Gambler and Lottery
Ah Boh from Lottery gambles away every cent earned and the money she earns is not a lot either. Just like the One-Dollar Gambler, she only has about one dollar most of the time, and yet she chooses to use it to bet on "number 13" instead of using it for other important things or even giving it to her old mother and on many occasions, her poor mother has to starve. At the end of the day, she does not win and not only does she "have zero dollars to bet", she has zero dollars for other important things. From here, the “blind man” is obvious – it is referring to Ah Boh herself, blind to keep gambling.

Posted by 1A123 Yue Jun at 8:18 AM

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