by Robert Halleck
November 29, 2014
California Chrome raced at Del Mar
A San Diego day
clear, 70 degrees
perfect track conditions.
By the 8th race I was
down $14 using my
winning jockey technique.
I was thinking safety first
as I walked to the window.
I saw him
leaning on a pillar
cigarette in a lowered
right hand, racing form in his left.
Bukowski's ghost.
I went toward him.
Looking up he froze me
in my tracks.
"Chrome's a sucker bet
don't be an asshole."
At the window I bet
Sawyer's Hill to show
and lost another $2.
Leaving Del Mar I saw him again
counting his money and smiling.
Robert Halleck is a hospice volunteer and retired banker. His poems have appeared in The San Diego Poetry Annual, The Camel Saloon, The Rainbow Journal.