Shell Game - April 9, 2025

I think I had breakfast

with a spy this morning

smart, single, well-spoken, thirty’s

handsome, young for a life trainer

just ten years in America from

a country that despises us

though on first impression he was

a relaxed, smiling, well-informed

talker with no red flags

however, when he stopped

the eyes jumped around like

the shuffling in a shell game

blocking something from discovery

which cued my intuition to leap

into action and turn over the shells

nothing, empty, deserted

later that night, with a pair of slippers

and new perspective, I mused

maybe he’s just making his way

through the minefield of a new life

and I was the bomb he was hoping

not to step on