Eight Ball

"Eight Ball" is from Claudia Emerson's 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning book, Late Wife. This book was published by the LSU Press (my alma mater), and from what I understand had very few copies printed prior to winning the Pulitzer. It is an amazing collection though. Emerson writes with stark, crisp imagery. It's both accessible and smart. I highly suggest picking up a copy if you can find one.

Eight Ball
by Claudia Emerson

It was fifty cents a game
beneath exhausted ceiling fans,

the smoke's old spiral. Hooded lights
burned distant, dull. I was tired, but you

insisted on one more, so I chalked
the cue--the bored blue--broke, scratched.

It was always possible
for you to run the table, leave me

nothing. But I recall the easy
shot you missed, and then the way

we both studied, circling--keeping
what you had left me between us.