Winner Takes All by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

He dug his eyeball out of his red meaty face

and threw it down on the table:

I see your severed thumb

and raise you an eyeball.

I met his eyeball

and raised him three piggies

from my left foot

because I was in too deep now

and couldn’t let him know

I was bluffing.

The pot was rich now.

The scalpel dull and rusty

which made removal of anything

an adventure.

Tommy had renounced women a few weeks back.

He stood up, sliced it off:

guess I won’t be needing this anymore.

Hacking through the thing as though sawing through

a 2X4.

The loss of blood was incredible.

I could barely see my cards.

Balled up towels all over the floor.

No one else willing to meet his bet

Tommy took the pot.

He was the big winner,

but we all felt bad for him

somehow.

About Ryan Quinn Flanagan:

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Horror Sleaze Trash, In Between Hangovers, The Dope Fiend Daily, and The Oklahoma Review