Gambling Everything
by Jayne Jenner
“Wash your balls,” my mom yelled
when the Bingo caller kept calling B4
over and over. Everybody gave my mom
a dirty look, but she didn’t care.
She just kept waiting and
waiting for the number she pressed
with her finger. Harder and harder she
tapped, pressed. B6, BINGO, my mom cried out
and everything in my heart jumped.
Everybody looked at my mom kind of mad.
A man came over to check her numbers.
“Good Bingo,” he said. Then, he put 100 dollars
cash in her hand. My mom checked the bills
and put them in a stack in front of her. The balls
started bouncing again in the machine.
My mom held her favorite green dauber
and waited for the next number. I waited
for the clock to say eleven so we could go home.
Jayne Jenner is an LCSW with a private psychotherapy practice in New York City. She studied at Penn State University, University of Manchester, England, and Fordham University, Lincoln Center. Her writing draws heavily on her experiences growing up in western Pennsylvania and her international travels as a flight attendant for American Airlines. She is a member of Mudfish Poetry Workshop, and received a first place prize in The 83rd Annual Writer’s Digest Competition, 2014.