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The page begins with cards, a needle, and crossed fingers, then turns an absurd act of eating something first into a poem about reading between lines and imagining what went on.

The voice is playful and self-aware, but the opening gives the joke a sharper ritual edge: cards turn over, a needle appears, and fingers cross before anything is eaten. Something is taken from the pot and eaten first, then immediately recast as a poem because readers search between lines and invent context. The closing insistence on not getting higher keeps the page suspended between confession, joke, and lecture.

This short poem stages cards, crossed fingers, and a needle as an occasion for a small, deliberate act: plucking something from the pot and eating it first, an image that folds pain or risk directly into appetite. The speaker turns this gesture into a statement of poetics, noting that the choice makes for a great poem because the reader can read between the lines and immagine went went on. The close, giving everyone a lecture while Not getting EVEN A Little higher, adds wry self-awareness about talk that fails to elevate or intoxicate.