The Lottery

• Abby Attrill, Grade 9, Nagle Catholic College
• Poetry
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Track 2015' competition

23, not 23, please God not 23
I have 3 kids, a wife, please not 23
I will be the best father, just please not 23
"And the lucky number is... 23!"
I'm going to war
I drop, I look through these portals for eyes and imagine
Imagine the beastly blood bath I will be entering
The bullets racing past my face
The lifeless bodies surrounding me, Why 23
Head shaved, boots shined,
Standing on the threshold of my youth
Saying goodbye the the loved ones I may never see again, Goodbye
The hard steaming Tarmac stretches before me
My footstep reverberate like thunder to my ears
The blades of the chopper slice through the air like a bayonet through skin
With a heavy heart I await my fate
The silence is piercing despite the rotors' roar,
My gun sits in my lap
We stand. We freeze. We jump.