Prodigy
He shook his bag of marbles at me in a jocular fashion.
It seems this childhood game is his secret guilty passion.
He had faith that eventually I would slake his thirst,
in spite of my conviction that marbles is the worst
game ever invented, for you see rampant sciatica
coupled with my daily dependence on Sal Hepatica
made my kneeling difficult, uncomfortable, and
rendered it most difficult, afterwards, to stand.
But his most stubborn diligence in begging for a bout
at last contradicted my reluctance and my doubt.
I picked me out a shooter and commenced to knuckle down—
the fact we played for keepsies occasioning my frown.
But it seems I am a prodigy—most artful with my thumb.
It wasn’t very long until he realized how dumb
it was to introduce me to this game that hurt my ribs
bending low to shoot at his dragonflies and mibs.
First I won his cats eye and then I won his aggie.
And when I won his shooter, I fear I became braggie.
In the end, I won at that game that he called ringer
by making a maneuver that proved to be a zinger.
And my friend the marble shark paid for all his sins
as I emptied out his marble sacks and emptied out his bins.
I left with all his marbles rattling in my tin,
grateful that he’d never ask to play the game again!
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
Hahaha, reminds me of when I was a little girl and asked my mom to play jacks with me; she was reluctant, but agreed to play a round. She started throwing the ball up, picking the little stars and catching the ball WITHOUT a bounce! (Back in her day, kids played with a bunch of pebbles, and threw one instead of the bouncy ball) I told her she could let it bounce once, so she laughed and proceeded to champion the match … needless to say, it was the same outcome as your story!
LikeLike
Ha.. The same happened with my mother. She was a whiz. It surprised me because she really didn’t ever play games with us. She preferred to read.
LikeLike
Judy, this is EXACTLY what I was hoping for—memories, humor and child-like glee!! Thank you for putting a large smile on my face!
LikeLike
Oh, thanks, Gizzy. I had no idea where it was headed and I had to do a lot of research on marbles once it went in that direction! Now I’d kinda like to play.
LikeLike
My mother was an amazing ping-pong player. She couldn’t play tennis anymore, so she put all her energy into ping-pong. I got to be her partner and I ALWAYS lost. She told me she’d give me an advantage and play me left-handed. Later, my aunt told me she ALWAYS played left-handed. My mother was trash-talking me.
She beat me every time, but I beat everyone else. Right-handed!
LikeLiked by 1 person
ha.. love it. These mothers. I know yours was unique, as was mine.
LikeLike