shell game

i was a carpenter

(he was a gambler)

i was building something 

(he was playing something else)

and the building smelled new

(king of cups, lord of the shell game)

the way construction does 

(a game old as creation)

paint and lumber: like hope  

(but new to me)

hope dust-white with sheetrock

(time caught up with the game)

and then the money ran out

(and i was left standing inside the shell I built)

the shell in my hand not the one i'd wanted

(the bank doesn't care)

sometimes on hot days you still get a whiff of hope