Patience

He will lay cards
that overlap like bream scales;
he will rainbow trout the duvet
hiding hearts and diamonds
queens and kings
beneath a plastic-coated
paisley skin.

While royals
doubled as if waist deep
in a lake of oil at sunset
throw smiles and hide
blades behind their cheeks
his wife brings him tea
in a Doncaster FC mug
hairlined like an ostrich egg.

He does not know her;
his memories land
in the discard pile -
a deuce
a trey
a joker
the abridged rules for draw poker.