Sonnets From Other Lives: Walter

Walter kept a twenty dollar bill
in his wallet--hoping it would reproduce.
(In self-help books the world bends to our will.)
His wife told him that he had a screw loose.
He warned her that her negativity
would queer the process so she just kept quiet.
Positive thinking really works. You’d see
yourself you know if you would only try it.
Sure enough the wallet filled with money.
(Mostly change from random cash transactions)
His wife secretly found it pretty funny.
But the joke fell flat as she watched his reaction
to his diagnosis--how he tried
using happy thoughts to fight the cancer ‘til he died.