220115 Sentinel, It will never be

This event happened in 2014.
At the time I was 69 years old. Joyce and I were settling in at the 3 card poker table in the old Quapaw casino in Miami, Oklahoma. It was our favorite place to play back then. The card dealers there were mostly in their twenties or thirties, much younger than Joyce and I were. I enjoyed harassing the male dealers in a friendly manner, while they would chide me on my card playing disabilities. Now with the young ladies, I would flirt shamelessly as Joyce would openly say, “Bill, You do know that I’m sitting right here next to you.”
This is Joyce in her glory, casino bound.

It was a fun time for us.

One lady’s name was JoDawn, she was quick witted and had no filters on what things she would say. She would say things to me that were unladylike to draw out an equal reply from me. The back and forth banter was more fun than playing the cards.
JoDawn knew I was a writer. As we sat down at the table one afternoon, our eyes met and I said, “Be careful looking into these eyes you see; you might see something that can never be.” JoDawn said, “Jot that down and use it to write something.” I did write it down and later came up with the following:

The look in my eyes
Can never tell lies
Words that we speak are often not true
Whether they’re said by me or by you
But the look in my eyes
Can never tell lies

My eyes reveal something that can never be
For never will the two of us both be free
We’ll never move the mountains you see
That barrier wall between you and me

While another man holds you at night
My holding you can never be right
The fates my dear have kept us at bay
From fate my dear, we can never stray

Had there been another time, a place
When first I’d seen your lovely face
There would be a different story told
It would be for us, a different world

Two weeks later we were back at the same casino. I had printed out this story and wanted to give it to JoDawn, but in a casino you are not allowed to hand something over the table to a card dealer. You have to hand it to the pit boss and then the pit boss may give it to the dealer. The pit boss read it and then put it aside for JoDawn when she went on her break time. Within an hour or so, everyone in the crew had read or heard about what I had written. Joyce had approved it and JoDawn approved and the whole crew like it too. My moment of semi-fame had arrived.