THE LOTTERY
I was Tuesday's winner but I didn't play.
You might as well give up for life now,
because it's not going to happen again.
You true fool - and you always have
been - if you didn't play then why 'd
you check. These regular numbers are
a killer. If you don't play them, Jeez,
don't look. It's enough to slit your
throat over, I'd say. Good-bye
to all that.
-
I was an unjust teen, a
'troublemaker' they called me.
But it wasn't true at all, it just found
me. And I never knew what to do
with to once it got me. It's tough
being speechless and young.
-
So, now I'm old. I seldom play
the lottery; or 'the numbers' as I call
them, and my Grandma did too. We used
to play, out on the streets of Bayonne.
She'd give me a paper with some maybe
ten numbers on it, and say go to Mary
Abate's neighbor Jenny, and give her
this. Two or three bucks and the slip.
-
Somehow the paper went from Jenny to
Louie at the corner store and some guy in
a Buick would soon come by and take
what he took - fancy suit, white shirt,
black car. And a gun too. I'd see it
sometimes hanging. No one cared.
-
The little Polish city was run-down
and dreary. Nobody really knew
a thing.
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