New Lines for Fortune Cookies
By James Masao Mitsui

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

You will gain

so
phis
ti
ca
tion,

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

re
dec
or
a
ted

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.