The Handicapper


My father was a gambling man
Filled with the wisdom of the track

Mottos of a practical nature

Never gamble more
Than you can afford to lose

He said with no trace of irony
As he spent his three score and ten
Among the company of smokey men

My father was a sometime cautious man
Metering out advice like a reluctant tipster

If you're at the table
And you don't know who the sucker is
It's you

He said
As we shared a quiet meal
Just he and I

My father was a calculating man
Who read the form and knew the odds

And at the track he said
He won more than he lost
But at what cost

Never gamble more
Than you can afford to lose

He said with no trace of irony
As he spent his three score and ten
Among the company of smokey men

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