In Austin, before a family dinner, my kids and I decided to putter around a children’s museum called The Thinkery. We forgot our membership card—brilliant side-note fact: an Idaho Discovery Center membership gets you into nearly any other children’s museum in the country—and my son said, “That is so unlucky!” Kassie took our word that we have a card and let us in anyway. When I asked her for a word, she laughed and said, lucky!
The Stranger: Kassie
The Word: Lucky
The poem I wrote:
I have seen things
die, expirations
falling like leaves
outside my nest.
Still here and still
alive, each time
I think: lucky.
And I keep going.
The Challenge: Do you have a poem in you on this word? Write one here.
March 6, 2019 at 10:14 pm
Lucky
Last year
Lucky meant a paycheck
and no floods when it rained.
Remember that year?
Or don’t, my love, those weren’t good times.
Let us rewrite them into a vision of us
Taking on the world, hand in hand,
Like the first days when we saw the future in each other’s eyes.
Today your eyes are murky.
I look away
Not ready to say goodbye.
March 6, 2019 at 11:06 pm
Good Luck!
I’ve been trying to make my own but nothing’s in the pot.
It seems that empty pockets are what I’ve got a lot.
Maybe what I need is a charm or amulet,
A magical accoutrement to aid me in my get.
Then, I could play the lottery. Maybe, win the PowerBall
Or stick coins into a slot machine so, I might win it all.
It’d be nice to see those 7’s line up before my eyes
As the siren cries my winning after not too many tries.
Alas, I’ve no such talisman, ju-ju jewelry, or abraxas
To help with my mojo so, I might pay back taxes.
I tried to find a clover of the four-leafed variety.
Only found some ivy: leaves shiny and of three.
Of course, that left me itching (I guess you think that’s funny.)
Next, I failed at defeating that lucky creature called a bunny.
Pedro, my good friend, swears by the burning candle.
One lit to the Saints, he says, gives all the luck that he can handle.
“Look, I am here,” he says, “I’ve got work and family.
We’ve got a truck and a small house. That’s a fortune, don’t you see?
No, our life’s not easy but, when pushing comes to shove,
We know that all our blessings were granted from above.”
Maybe, Pedro’s right and my life is not so rude.
I don’t need a change in luck, just one in attitude.
Starting here, right now, I’m ending my lament.
I’ll appreciate my life if it’s one that’s better spent.
So, if you want to find me, I’ll be in a bed of clover.
Maybe, not the four-leafed ones, my search for luck is over.
March 7, 2019 at 5:56 am
Lucky Enough
If you’re lucky, you’ll have
a best friend
show up in 7th grade
when you don’t know
what’s in your pants
and he has a theory
from a friend
of his older brother
who spoke pink secrets,
blew smoke from his nose.
If you’re lucky
you will see your shadow,
follow it
across the tracks
take what you want,
learn to regret,
blow smoke
from your own nose.
If luck holds out
you’ll see that friend again
before you both dissolve.
You’ll search each other
for the rusty forge stamp
that no one else understands.
You give it voice
he gives that look
that tells 15 more stories.
It’s enough.