gambling fever

you slowly tear up
the five dollars worth of lottery
tickets that you purchased
for the big drawing
and toss the scraps into
the fire.
your luck has not run dry,
it's never even trickled
to begin with.
you didn't have one single
number that matched any
of the numbers chosen.
this tells you something.
gambling isn't in your blood.
you've always been cautious
with even buying things
from a vending machine.
you wish you had the five dollars
back. the things you could
do with that money.
a grande gingerbread latte,
for example, with whipped cream.