[vc_row row_height_percent=”50″ override_padding=”yes” h_padding=”2″ top_padding=”3″ bottom_padding=”3″ back_image=”56863″ back_position=”center top” overlay_alpha=”0″ gutter_size=”3″ shift_y=”0″][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ position_vertical=”bottom” style=”dark” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ zoom_width=”0″ zoom_height=”0″ width=”1/1″][vc_custom_heading heading_semantic=”h1″ text_size=”fontsize-338686″ text_height=”fontheight-179065″ text_space=”fontspace-111509″ text_font=”font-762333″ text_weight=”700″ text_color=”color-xsdn” sub_reduced=”yes” subheading=”by Kristene Kaye Brown”]My Lottery Tickets Are All Duds[/vc_custom_heading][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_empty_space empty_h=”2″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]but I buy them anyway. Little scratchers
full of confetti and hope,
numbers wrapping around my luck
like the lights of a police cruiser
wrapping around a man with nothing
to lose. Once, I mistakenly bought
two Fireball Bingos in Spanish
from the Gas and Go across the street,
the one that got busted for selling
synthetic marijuana. I remember
how the teenagers walked around
in some half-zombie state,
carrying sticks from trees
their great grandparents planted
for shade, now a trunk of weapons
the new generation use
to beat stray dogs. Not everything
is made to add up.
I still have that ticket.
A useless ticket I now use
as a bookmark to read books I wish
I’d written. Even now, I still
don’t know if I’m a winner or loser
because I never learned
the language of another and
I’m too embarrassed now to go back
and admit my mistake.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_center” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1/1″][vc_empty_space][vc_separator sep_color=”color-184322″ el_width=”30%”][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column column_width_percent=”100″ align_horizontal=”align_right” overlay_alpha=”50″ gutter_size=”3″ medium_width=”0″ mobile_width=”0″ shift_x=”0″ shift_y=”0″ z_index=”0″ width=”1/3″][vc_single_image media=”58166″ media_width_percent=”100″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_column_text]Kristene Kaye Brown is a mental health social worker. She earned her MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Her work has previously been published, or is forthcoming, in DIAGRAM, Harpur Palate, Minnesota Review, Nashville Review, and others. Kristene lives and works in Kansas City.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
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