Jake, The Rounder Poem by Randolph Greer

JAKE, THE ROUNDER
They called him Jake, The Rounder.
He did just as he pleased.
He always made a legend of
The life through which he breezed.

He played each game a plenty.
And always won his share.
But it was at a hustler's game
His legend came to bear.

He took ole Stanley Moses
For quite a wad one night.
As Moses thought he had him beat,
But it was Rounds alright.

Jacob Brooks had met a girl
And tried to make a play.
Then Rounder found them both alone
Just at the break of day.

Rounder's girl, or so he claimed
Would never stray again.
And Jacob Brooks was never seen.
Where did he go back then?

Janie Clark was next to run
Afoul of Rounder's games.
They found her in an ole creek bed.
Said killed by Corey James.

Rounder took ole Perry Smith
For one and forty two.
All that good ole Perry had.
He died, that's all we knew.

Rounder next met Mickey Starr
At Simpson's Bar and Grill.
And Rounder might have lost that night,
But he gave Starr a pill.

I don't think he ever knew,
And no one dared to say.
And who would be the first to get in
In Jake, The Rounder's way?

Rounder ruled the bars back then.
Most closed now, as you know.
But Jake sure left the only way
A man like him should go.

There he was, next to a tree
One cold December day.
His body blistered by the heat
Of branding irons they say.

You may wonder who it was,
That left him as he be.
I guess its time I tell the truth,
His girlfriend, Jane, and me.

Greenwolfe 1962


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