Wealth Without Work

We all dream -

Of being bitten by some radioactive bookworm

Sometime around the exam date

That imparts to us the amazing power

To memorise pages and pages of text

And regurgitate them later, undigested

Onto our test papers….

 

We all dream -

 

Of hitting the lucky jackpot

Getting that phone call;

“Congratulations, you’ve just won -”

So we tune in daily to the game shows

Who doesn’t want to be a millionaire?

We buy the Lotto tickets -

“My birthday, my mum’s, and my sister’s” -

And wear our thumbs down to the knuckles

Trying to send that winning text…

The more you enter,

The better your chances of winning!

 

“Mr Njoroge here, from Machakos

Won twenty million just by buying a ticket!

What are you waiting for?

Buy yours and SMS your lucky number to 66639

N.O.W

For your chance to win, win, win!”

 

Tell the statisticians

Where they can stick their odds

They say my chances of winning

Are one in a million;

Well, I’m that kind of guy.

 

That’s why I sit here day after day

Hitting buttons on slot machines

Or asking croupiers to hit me;

It’s only a matter of time

Before I hit the big one, baby.

So you tell the kids to hang on

In waiting on that one hand

Then I’ll walk away for good,

I promise.

 

Hooked to this thing

Like Vicodin

Hopeless hole that I’m trapped in!

It can't be beat;

It’s down in the script -

House always wins.

 

As the years follow years

You realize

You’ve been at these tables

Half your life

Traded in all you had

Lost all your time

Misery and emptiness

Your grand prize…

 

You want to reap

Before you sow

You want the fruit

Before you grow

Groping in the dark

Where the phantoms lurk

Of the duties that you shirk

Chasing wealth without work…

 

 

 

Reviews

[Centfie]

We often want the easy way out, well most of us. That desire to get rich quick clouds one's judgement. i hope i got it right. once again I laud your creativity. very nice to read.

[M.Babu]

Great job on this!! Beautiful work bro!!

~M.Babu~

[TLK]

I'm teaching probability misjudgement (as a factor behind anomalistic belief) to my students right now -- so this has a certain educational resonance with me.

We do believe in easy ways out. Why do we think we deserve such things?

The chilling line is the unfinished "Your grand prize..." It imparts a horrible sensation of the 'prize', and is delicious.

Statisticians show that to win the lottery you will on average have to spend so much you only win back half of what you pay out. On the plus side, at least someone else gets the money you put into it. It goes somewhere, to someplace, to make someone happy.