Carmen Bugan
Fortune-telling poem
1.
She wheeled her pleated
And frilled skirt
Right through
The wooden gates.
Red-orange-blue
Dervish-woman.
She had the lips
Of one who lies
For happiness.
A red ribbon
And silver coins were woven
In her braids.
Her beauty was her wealth
And she charmed me.
2.
After she told my fortune
She said to the wind, ‘unbraid my hair,
Loosen the coins from my head,
Free me from telling lies to those who need them.’
So the wind wound her in his arms
As he does with the willows
And a pile of coins sounded on the ground like bells.
Poor prophetess without her lies,
She ran along the river.
I followed her
With a good-luck coin pressed in my palm:
As we crossed the water
I could not remember the fortune she told me
And without illusions, tears
Fell to the ground like bells.
She wheeled her pleated
And frilled skirt
Right through
The wooden gates.
Red-orange-blue
Dervish-woman.
She had the lips
Of one who lies
For happiness.
A red ribbon
And silver coins were woven
In her braids.
Her beauty was her wealth
And she charmed me.
2.
After she told my fortune
She said to the wind, ‘unbraid my hair,
Loosen the coins from my head,
Free me from telling lies to those who need them.’
So the wind wound her in his arms
As he does with the willows
And a pile of coins sounded on the ground like bells.
Poor prophetess without her lies,
She ran along the river.
I followed her
With a good-luck coin pressed in my palm:
As we crossed the water
I could not remember the fortune she told me
And without illusions, tears
Fell to the ground like bells.
Page(s) 9
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