Love and War in Cards
by Elizabeth West '16

Spades is power, unrelenting and cold
Diamonds is wealth, gleaming and gold
Hearts is love, the bond of us all
Clubs is luck, commanding rise and fall
Hearts is love, while Spades is war
Opposites according to ancient lore
Hearts is red, while Spades is black
One has color, and one lacks
But the thing that people don't get
and you don't know either, I bet
That behind the ace and the crown
A spade is a heart turned upside-down
Diamonds is wealth, gleaming and gold
Hearts is love, the bond of us all
Clubs is luck, commanding rise and fall
Hearts is love, while Spades is war
Opposites according to ancient lore
Hearts is red, while Spades is black
One has color, and one lacks
But the thing that people don't get
and you don't know either, I bet
That behind the ace and the crown
A spade is a heart turned upside-down