The fortune teller says buy a blue sapphire ring
Give the man sandalwood beads blessed by a Buddhist
monk. And if you’re missing pieces pictured in the
assembly instructions, or the box for your model airplane
includes an extra adornment, chrome spoke or
insignia, and you can’t just leave it alone to fit together
later when things make more sense, like when your
mother dies, or volcanoes on Io erupt like Daisy Cutters
in holy wars against Aladdin, then lash yourself
with stinging nettles, annihilate the ballroom mirror,
let marble halls, Royal Palm gardens, bubbling swimming
pools, teak elephants from Thailand in the lobby
of the palace, The Doorman turn to a pillar of salt and
blow away. Crawl on the roadside under Saturn’s light
in tears of icy blue-collar shame, shame, looking
for what you threw away, console yourself in the eyes
of always transient devotees, you’ll need to do that,
explain yourself to them for this mistaken identification,
in order to have a meaningful script for your next
missionary expedition to enlighten pre-adolescent
Punjabi soldiers, explanation for having strayed into a
romance with an adult male, or you can leave this part out,
your politically/socially foolish cares. Do pujas, become a
renunciate, never seen or really understood by anyone
Michael Rothenberg
