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.