Buy a ticket!

[PrinceMyshkin]

Goldberg, a pious Jew, had been hoping to win the lottery for years. Finally, exasperated, he went to the synagogue:

“God," he prayed, "I've been a faithful Jew all my life. I've never asked anything of you in return. For years now I've been hoping to win the lottery. Would it be so bad if just this once you arranged for me to win?"

After a while he heard the voice of God boom out:


“Goldberg, do me a favour - buy a ticket."



You’ve been hoping for love,
extending your peripheral vision
until you can practically see the back of your head.

Buy a ticket

You’ve been walking through the garden
longing for beauty. Stop
and study just one flower,
stamen, pistil, leaf and petal.

You’ve been wishing for universal peace.
Extend your hand
to any one stranger
and offer him or her
the prospect of unconditional love.

[AuntShecky]

I like verse that riffs on an epigraph, such as the joke that opens this piece. The idea behind "Buy a ticket" is nice also, but a tad idealistic (then again, if you don't have idealism in poetry where the hell is it going to be?) In the real world, though, not everybody has the wherewithal to "buy a ticket" (For instance, talk to disgruntled Yankee fans who have to mortgage everything just to watch one of their lousy home games.)

Not only that, in the real world we're surrounded by scalpers.

But in your poem here, maybe humankind could someday "buy a ticket." To quote Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises: "It would be pretty to think so!"