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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