Yoshika Wason: Everybody Loves a Good Wheel of Fortune Story

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

Everybody Loves a Good Wheel of Fortune Story

A little salt brings out the sweetness
that’s what Keith, as in America’s
Next Top Model Cycle 21 Keith,
means when he says the magic of growing up poor is taking
three outfits and twisting them
into ten: mixing and matching,
borrowing, and returning.

What can I say, poverty made us
creative motherfuckers, no boot straps included.

Praise the sales rack and bless
the pre-Macklemore thrift shop.
And lets not forget about our
favorite Canal Street knockoffs.

I smize in my Cinderella-ed
prom dress and head to the mall
to see and be seen by queens
of window shopping.

I join the others. We who are free
and reduced lunch poor.
We who are more
America than motherland.
We who don’t need tarot cards
to tell us we’re unlucky.
We who have poor dads
who have poor dads
who had poor dads.
We we we are on the come up
and nobody knew it until
Fortuna Keith spilled the secret.
We dance in the food court
to the sound of top 40
and second hand laughter
our bodies sweaty and speckled
with spent glitter. We sing
who says you need a buck
to have a good time?

They said our life is just a spin
on the wheel of fortune
but we always knew
survival is Do It Yourself.

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Yoshika Wason is a teacher and writer. She earned her BA in English and secondary education from Boston College, where she was editor-in-chief of ASIAM, an Asian Pacific Islander American literary magazine. Her works have appeared in Ghost City Review, Ricepaper Magazine, and more. Yoshika is from Bridgeport, Connecticut and currently resides in Japan. Learn more at www.yoshikawason.com