your lucky day in poetry

he bought his lotto tickets there
sometimes
because he thought the place was lucky

he thought that it was lucky
sometimes
because it was quite near
where the one he felt
had got away
grew up

she got away because, of course
he had been a coward and young
and she left before he was no longer young
and he stayed a coward for the rest of his life
so he treated it as if it was a font
of other wondrous things as well
and maybe if he won the lotto there
it might be almost half as amazing
as if he hadn’t been a coward
and she hadn’t got away

he bought his lotto tickets there
sometimes
because he thought the place was lucky
and a life of easy wealth would be
a lesser consolation prize
to being with her