New Lines for Fortune Cookies
          By James Masao Mitsui

               - after Frank O'Hara

                  You have been smiling across the table at your date
                with a sesame seed stuck in your teeth.

            You will gain sophistication, become accepted by Reader’s
          Digest, and retire in Puyallup.

          In your next life you will be a teacher
            and no one will ever call you by your first name.

                After your next vacation you will come home
                  and discover that your neighbors have redecorated
                in the style of Iowa trailer court.

              If you feel like you’re getting old,
            secretly plant zucchini in your neighbor’s flowerbeds.

         Avoid people who iron their sheets
          or roll their socks & underwear.

              Painting and poetry and music will show us where we should
                be going, not the senate or tv news.

                The next thermos bottle you see will actually
              be a listening device made in Korea.

           All the people in this restaurant
         are glad that they are not you.

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