With a card in my hand and a trick up my sleeve,
With a deck on my wrist and the will to believe,
With a disk, runner, capsule, or Item to wield,
A friend at my back and a foe 'cross the field,
Let shadow-clouds thunder and worlds come undone,
The Light shine too whitely and bullies have fun;
No challenge I fear and behind nothing leave,
With a card in my hand and a trick up my sleeve.

With a card in my hand and a trick up my sleeve,
With a deck on my wrist and the will to believe,
With a disk, runner, capsule, or Item to wield,
A friend at my back and a foe 'cross the field,
My heart stands with those with their heart in the cards,
From shadow to seashore, the game's honor guards;
With a stand and a will, there's no need to deceive
With a deck on my wrist and the will to believe.

With a card in my hand and a trick up my sleeve,
With a deck on my wrist and the will to believe,
With a disk, runner, capsule, or Item to wield,
A friend at my back and a foe 'cross the field,
My destiny's clear and my future is bright,
There's nothing to fear and a new way to fight,
With diaha's cry is freedom's voice pealed,
With a disk, runner, capsule, or Item to wield.

With a card in my hand and a trick up my sleeve,
With a deck on my wrist and the will to believe,
With a disk, runner, capsule, or Item to wield,
A friend at my back and a foe 'cross the field,
The cards are all down, not a thing left to doubt,
Because in a duel the truth always comes out,
And when all's said and done, a true vict'ry revealed:
A friend at my back and a friend 'cross the field.

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Background:

I wrote this out of the blue one Monday afternoon in October 2008. I'd been sitting on a work that unifies and unites all three (four) canons of Yu-Gi-Oh! for about a month now (since the beginning of 5D's), and I finally came up with this. Half the fun of having multiple canons is reconciling their similarities, differences, and recognizing that which makes them all one canon together. Along with The Portal, this represents a recent tendency toward repetitive poetry. In addition, this happened the week I wrote my personal charter at the end of Landmark Education's Living Passionately Seminar. The night after the seminar, right before I wrote this commentary, in fact, the pieces finally fell into place like I'd been trying to get them to all week. And my values came straight from the duelists I've admired since I was thirteen years old: Enthusiasm, for Jaden, who once made it necessary to look the word up in a thesaurus. Honor, for Yugi, who transformed the nature of the game from cynicism to heart by never compromising his own. And Guts, for Yusei, one of the few duelists I can imagine doing what he's done in the canon so far: dare the wrath of the law for the sake of his unrelenting belief in the future. And pick a duel with a prison tough by kicking his legs out from under him. That was pretty darn cool. I tell myself I admire true duelists because they are everything I'm not, but it isn't true; they're just up-front about it.
As for references and inside jokes, there are a couple nearly-direct or direct GX quotes, such as "Don't worry about me; I still have a deck in my hand and a few tricks up my sleeve!" from the one time Crowler acts like a real duelist in Field of Screams I, and my favorite Jadenism EVER, "Because in a duel, the truth ALWAYS comes out!" The poem also references the running theme of bullies in the four canons, the prevalence of destiny, and the 5D's themes of freedom (as in "My Junk Warrior's going to make sure me n' Rally stay free!") and the future ("It's our...our... / Future. That's why I have to do this."). "Diaha" is a phrase that was only used once, in the Ancient Past ("The Makings of a Magician"): "Well, I suppose it's time to duel, isn't it? Or as they say here in Egypt-- Diaha!"
In this universe, a deck and duel disk are symbolic of the power to stand up for yourself and for what you believe in. Not only that, but the duelists we all love the most are born to play; with a deck, they're home. In addition, duels traditionally level the playing field; even if one or the other opponent is stronger physically or even magically, a duelist's power in a duel is based on heart, ingenuity, and cleverness, not strength.