Tickets 

When I was at school

Imbibing knowledgeable jewels

One day

My charitable side was swayed

So lottery tickets I bought

In the seventh standard, I was no tot

I kept them in a place with care

And finished my home work, got it out of my hair

A few weeks later

After a chat with my pater

I decided to look for them

For I had forgotten where I’d put the potential gems

No place were they to be found

My memory is not always sound

Sad, I sat on the stairs to my roof

Now there would be no proof

If indeed I did win

God was punishing me for some sin

For somehow, I was suddenly sure

Of my belief I could not be cured

That I would definitely win a prize

How awful that I hadn’t been wise

For days I was despondent and dull

In my life, there was a lull

Went to school

Feeling like a fool

 

A cleaner handed me a letter addressed to me

Puzzled, the name of the sender I tried to see

It was father Sam

My friends teased that I had a fan

They giggled in the silliest of ways

And I was in quite a daze

I opened the letter at last

A short letter, it wasn’t vast

Congratulations it said

And the information was received by my head

That I had won the fourteenth prize

On my face shock, no pleasant surprise

Friends gathered around, a few

And enquired why I was blue

I shook my head, solitary in sorrow

What would happen tomorrow

On the day after or whenever

For I had certainly not been clever

I pestered my parents quite a bit

For my greed and anxiety were lit

Finally the problem was sorted

My melancholy was thwarted

Somehow I acquired proof

Elated I went to the roof

The birds seemed merrily to chirp

And my Horlicks I gladly slurped

The coveted item was only a tray

But I was smug for days

To be young and simple again

To feel what I felt then

The biggest of acquisitions doesn’t stop me grumble

And I think of the fun derived from a prize so humble