When We Lose Monopoly

When we lose Monopoly

We walk home

The long way

The way with the dark patches

And the old houses

And the broken fences

With grey, dead lawns

Behind them

We cry down our breath

And with somber grace retreat

Through heavy doors

That make us feel

Like we’ve secluded ourselves

In bunkers

We think about where

We went wrong

The roll of the dice

That landed us

In front of

Two hotels

The refusal to purchase

What seemed

Like a worthless property

Or the acquisition

Of too many properties

When really

We needed to invest

In the properties

We already owned

The time spent in jail

The hesitation at being ruthless

The bad luck left over

From that game of Scrabble last week

That sent us down a path

Of loss and loss and loss

We climb into unmade beds

And think about

Touching our spouses

But choose instead

To touch ourselves

The places on ourselves

That still feel

Like winning

The nipples that feel like dice

The fingernails that feel like silver cars

The eyelashes that feel like real fake money

We count the crisp cash

In our in-and-out dreams

The day dawns

The blinds are drawn

The mistakes of the weekend

Tell on us

To those we hold most dear

We are no longer people

Who have done this or that

We are losers

We are Monopoly losers

We have failed

More than just ourselves

And our families

We have failed capitalism

We have failed ambition

We have failed the American Dream

What more is there

For us?

For people who were given the chance

To take the world by storm

And instead

Collected a measly two fifty

Just because they managed

To drag their sorry carcasse

Across the board

One more time

Before they were systematically dismantled

By players

Who were a bit more greedy

A bit more rude

A bit more brash

A bit better

At the game

When we lose Monopoly

Other games

Are suggested

At future outings

But nothing will satisfy

Nothing will sate

Nothing will make us feel better

About handing over

Bill after bill

Of our fake fake real fake money

There’s nothing else

We want to play

Until we can win

At what we’ve lost

And it’s that appetite

That’ll doom us all

In the end

But until then

We walk down a street

With the dark

Whispering

In our pockets

And we think about a railroad

Four railroads

Two utilities

And a top hat

That will never comfortably

Fit

On our heads