Fresh out of October, which sailed past
as though it had somewhere else important
to be, we swerve, breathless and half asleep,
into this new day, first of this new month,
hopeful, wishful, praying for that luck,
Irish or any other kind, to bring us fortune.
‘Tis Montana State Lottery season.
Without breaking fast, we drive to the Mint
Bar (any western town worth its cattle
has a Mint Bar), where we wait, three hours
after last call, atop pleather barstools
sipping from Styrofoam cups bitter coffee
made by a bartender who doesn’t drink coffee.
I watch people eat complimentary doughnuts
wondering how they get away with it.
We wait for the magic chime,
for the ceremony of ticket sales to commence
as the room fills fuller with cheerful folk
talking and laughing too loud for this early.
Odds of winning the million, 1 in 124,000.
That’s about ten times greater
than the odds of rolling a Yahtzee
on a first roll. I want to abstain.
I never win anything, I always say,
which isn’t true. Just this week I won
a handmade leather amulet in a raffle.
Can’t win if you don’t play is the mantra.
That one’s true.
I zone out playing Yahtzee on my phone.
I roll five Yahtzee’s between two games.
Last year we both drew instant hundred-dollar
winning tickets. Made back my investment,
which is usually all I ever ask from a gamble.
We spend what little extra cash we can
on numbered paper slips.
No instant wins today.
Home before sunrise of All Soul’s Day,
now we set our clocks back one hour and wait
for someone to draw our winning numbers.
Born and raised in Wyoming, Shelly Norris now resides on the Montana Hi Line where she serves as the Liberal Arts/Communications Instructor at Aaniiih Nakoda College on the Fort Belknap Reservation. Her first collection titled "Hyperbola" debuted February 2024. Her second collection titled "Dry Lake" is in publication due out soon.
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