King of Hearts Might Not Have One

Marinah Inman is a personal banker, bartender, and poet. She has published poetry in Northland College’s magazine, The Mosaic (2018), Anthology Turning the Corner, New Adventures (2021), and was co-editor for Prayers for Women by Women (2022), a Thrivent prayer book. She is a Washington State native but grew up in Oklahoma and Minnesota. Marinah now resides in the small town of Hartford, Wisconsin and enjoys being an aunt, daughter, and friend.

King of Hearts Might Not Have One

Card games in Marianas Trench don’t feel the same without you-
Anyway, the monsters like Rummy more than expected.
Crustaceans play fair for the most part, but the sharks like to cheat and ruin the mood
I sip on a seaweed cocktail and pray waves swirl me into the abyss where you seem to have
disappeared to

Just in time to beat you at your own game.

No rules, right?

Anyway, the monsters laugh at me
I ask if they can solve a riddle; they can’t, and neither can I.

A good man is gifted a fiddle, but it doesn’t play any music.
None of his instruments do anymore-
Not the tiny violin in the corner or the piano or our favorite song on the jukebox
Is the fiddle the one playing him or is he simply not a good man?

Marinah Inman is a personal banker, bartender, and poet. She has published poetry in Northland College’s magazine, The Mosaic (2018), Anthology Turning the Corner, New Adventures (2021), and was co-editor for Prayers for Women by Women (2022), a Thrivent prayer book. She is a Washington State native but grew up in Oklahoma and Minnesota. Marinah now resides in the small town of Hartford, Wisconsin and enjoys being an aunt, daughter, and friend.