This poem also expresses an accurate and sort of twisted
perspective on things.
And it's about-- it's called "Fortune".
In a way, it's about good luck which is invisible
because when you have good luck, you think you deserve it.
Although it's all around us all the time.
But it's very invisible.
And it's about-- the title is "Fortune"
so it's also about fortune cookies in Chinese restaurants,
which make a prediction.
Fortune has the sense of making a prediction.
And then fortune also has the sense
of being existant fortune, just good fortune.
And I was at a Chinese restaurant
with a bunch of people.
And at the end of the meal, they serve that wonderful slice
of orange with the bill, which is beautifully choreographed
moment.
And then-- and then you have your fortune cookie
and you get to do that wonderful ritual of breaking something
and finding something out.
I was at a table to people, the kind of people
who all read their fortunes.
Like in America, we're supposed to share all the time.
I didn't feel like telling anybody
what my fortune was so I lied.
And I told them that my fortune said ideology is bad for you,
because secrecy is important and valuable.
So, "Fortune".
"In a Chinese restaurant, it is the perfect forethought
and timing with which the slices of orange
arrive on a small plate with the bill.
So while you are paying what is owed,
the sweet juice fills your mouth for free.
And the fortune cookie too, which offers you
the pleasure of breakage.
And then that other pleasure of discovering, extracting
and reading the little strip of paper with a happiness you
maybe conceal the way the child you once were
is even now concealed inside you.
Maybe you will marry a redheaded woman.
Maybe you are going to take a long journey.
Maybe a redheaded woman will steal your car
and take a long journey.
Maybe you will be buried next to your mother.
And when the people you are dining with smile
and read their fortunes out loud,
and ask you to tell them your own,
you smile and tell them a lie.
And they laugh and think you were weird and funny and sad.
And you know that you are of those things.
But you don't tell them the truth,
because you don't trust anyone.
And you never have.
That is your fortune."