Issue #58 Vol. 35, May 4th, 2010
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Arts & Entertainment

The Master

By Michelle Davis

 Grandma cheats at monopoly
She’ll tell you that she doesn’t
But she does

I know she didn’t buy those hotels
Yet suddenly she owns a veritable colony on marvin gardens
And I just rolled a three

Grandpa pretends he doesn’t notice
His survival instincts outweigh his desire to win
Instead he quietly pays his utility fee and places the money on free parking

The situation is growing grim
Grandma’s hotels are springing up all over the board
It’s a field of landmines and grandma holds the trigger

But just as I’m about to stand up and expose her cheating ways

She slips out of her seat and away from out game When she returns, she carries with her a plate of oatmeal raisin cookies

The smell of sweet warm raisins fills my nostrils and overwhelms my senses
I no longer view the woman before me as conniving, compulsive cheater
Instead, she is simply grandma

So I eat her cookies and observe her sneaky ways,
As houses and hotels continue to magically appear on her properties
And her piles of colourful money continue to grow

I watch her slide her thimble smoothly across the board
And land on the coveted free parking space
And smiles
And I take notes

(Are you a budding poet? Submit your work to arts@theotherpress.ca to see it in print!)