Good Fortune

Marc Alan Di Martino

My fortune cookie hides a prophecy

deep in its eggy, glucose-coated gut.

It says that I will prosper if I just

work harder, as if hard work were a key

to fling doors open left and right. My life

has oozed and drizzled elbow grease, though now

I feel the urge to run and tell my wife

that I’ll work harder still to tow my load.

She’ll roll her eyes, I know. That’s what she does

whenever I’ve a bright idea to share.

The kitchen drawers are full. I hide them there

so when I pull a knife out, feel the chill

steel blade against my skin—that ancient thrill—

some age-old wisdom cures me of my blues.

Marc Alan Di Martino is the author of Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City Press, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski’s Porch, 2022) and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Bad Lilies, Palette, Rattle and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and Best Spiritual Literature. His translation Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell’Arco will be published by World Poetry Books in 2024. Currently a reader for Baltimore Review, he lives in Italy.