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The town down the river

Chapter 32: DOCTOR OF BILLIARDS
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About This Book

A sequence of sombre, often ironic poems that portray isolated individuals and communal life through compact narratives and lyrical portraiture. The collection alternates longer sequences and standalone pieces to examine ambition, failure, memory, aging, and the persistence of imagination amid ordinary surroundings. Recurring observers address youth, dreamers, and the weather of fortune while imagery pairs domestic detail with stark solitude. Shifts between conversational monologue and formal meditation yield quiet tragedies, wry character sketches, and reflective meditations delivered in plain yet resonant language.

DOCTOR OF BILLIARDS

Of all among the fallen from on high,
We count you last and leave you to regain
Your born dominion of a life made vain
By three spheres of insidious ivory.
You dwindle to the lesser tragedy—
Content, you say. We call, but you remain.
Nothing alive gone wrong could be so plain,
Or quite so blasted with absurdity.
You click away the kingdom that is yours,
And you click off your crown for cap and bells;
You smile, who are still master of the feast,
And for your smile we credit you the least;
But when your false, unhallowed laugh occurs,
We seem to think there may be something else.