No Luck at All by Meg Pokrass

It's as if luck were a finicky houseguest
who left quietly
dripping parmesan cheese in her wake.
The smell of luck is in here
somewhere, but only the animals
can sense it. The dog sits waiting
for a treat, the cat stares outside
at moving bird shadows.
The lizard sits profoundly silent,
waiting for the luck of dead crickets.



Meg Pokrass is the author of five flash fiction collections and a book of prose poetry, Cellulose Pajamas, for which she received the Blue Light Book Award. Her work has been widely and internationally anthologized, most recently in New Micro (W.W. Norton & Co., 2018), Flash Fiction International (W.W. Norton & Co., 2015) and The Best Small Fictions 2018, 2019. She serves as Founding Co-Editor of Best Microfiction.