Francesco Beda, Italian
Two Men Playing Billiards, and One Guy Who Won’t Stop Staring at Their Balls, Before 1900
Oil on canvas
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/// Game of Billiards is played. How to win
with no pockets to sink the balls in?
You are destined to lose
if you can’t pick up cues
how to give to your ball the right spin.
/// To do well in this game, players need
to learn how to control the ball’s speed
and the angle it takes
when it hits— “Them’s the breaks!”
With geometry skills they’ll succeed.
/// As around the long table they walk,
many players rub cue sticks with chalk.
It’s abundantly clear
not to stick in one’s ear
those same cue tips, (or people will talk!)
/// She leans forward, is just barely able
to place balls where they go at mid-table.
No one stands at her back;
they’re all watching her rack.
(This was long before skin-flicks on cable.)
/// One persnickety player alleges
that the southern end has higher edges.
It’s as tough as the Devil
to keep games on the level.
Under various legs they push wedges.
/// This table has uses contrasting.
There’ve been holiday meals everlasting,
but they use it for games
and for non-banquet aims
when the people who live here are fasting.
/// Chandelier must come down between games
to ignite or extinguish the flames.
When the wax candles melt,
the expensive green felt
is destroyed, the head butler proclaims.