DID YOU KNOW THE GAME IS RIGGED

By: Claire Scott

I didn’t know

as I dropped quarters into the slot

carefully steered the joystick

to grab the cuddly lion

yes! the lion in its claw

but then it loses its grip, the lion tumbles

back into the pile of prizes

I put another quarter in

then another

until no more quarters

waiting for my allowance

next Saturday morning

They say don’t eat processed food

skip hot dogs and sugary cereals

no delicious handfuls of microwave popcorn

only carrot sticks and apple slices

exercise 120 minutes each week

no time for lunch with Sara

or a matinee at the Grand Lake

forget that glass of Chardonnay

that settles your nerves

after eight hours in a subzero warehouse

sleep seven hours a night

don’t finish the film to see

who the murderer was

although you will be sleepless wondering

and you do and you do and you do it all right

then the doctor says pancreatic cancer

or a semi runs a red light

and you find yourself in a cardboard coffin

hugging a cuddly lion

that cost two thousand quarters

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Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review and Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.