PCC INSCAPE MAGAZINE
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    • Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos
    • Issue On-7 2019SPR Mental Health Companion >
      • Issue Intro
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  • PRINT ARCHIVE
    • Fall 2018 Print Issue - Frankenstein TOC
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Telling a Fortune

A poem by Edward Ahern

Come in, my dear, and sit in that chair.
What’s that? No, no crystal ball, no incense.
Just a table, and two chairs, and you and I.
Before you pay me, I must give you a choice.
Choose between two fortunes-neither of them lies.

One lets you look in a mirror,
What you will do, who you will bed,
The future as others are able to see you.
Most are content with that.

The other? Ah, that’s much more painful.
I will flay your image and look inside you
At what you become and what you fail to be.
Your essence as it purifies or taints.

Most are unhappy with these revelations,
But recognize their truth
Even though they rarely change.
So which will it be?

Inner or outer, the money is the same.
My actions will not vary.
But I will be looking at you
Either dressed up or naked.

The procedure? Absurdly simple.
Your elbow on the table, fingers straight out.
I set my hands on each side of yours.
And pass them up and down, just not touching.

Your hand feels pressure and warmth.
Both are phantoms but not unreal.
Your focus is through your hand
As I begin to know you.

I ask no questions, that would be fraud.
Only begin to tell you
Of what you will have done
Or what you will become.

What’s that? No, of course I understand.
Most people prefer to know
The course of their life rather than
The curses of their nature.
Shall we begin?

Ed Ahern resumed writing after forty-odd years in foreign intelligence and international sales. He’s had a hundred ninety poems and stories published so far, and three books. He works the other side of writing at Bewildering Stories, where he sits on the review board and manages a posse of five review editors.
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  • 2020 Summer Folio
  • About
  • Black Lives Matter
  • Feral Parrot : The Blog
  • Submissions
  • Awards & Prizes
    • Handley Award Winners
    • 2019 Inscape Editor's Prizes
  • PCC Inscape Instagram
  • STAFF 2021
    • STAFF - Winter 2020
    • Fall 2020 STAFF Q&A
    • staff-SPRING 2019
    • Staff-SPRING 2018
    • Staff -FALL 2018
    • Staff -FALL 2017
  • Interviews
    • INT - Adrian Cepeda Poet of the Year 2019
    • INT-Visiting Writer Wendy Adamson FA2019
  • ONLINE ARCHIVE
    • 2020 February Folio
    • 2019 Fall Folio
    • Celebrating Dia De Los Muertos
    • Issue On-7 2019SPR Mental Health Companion >
      • Issue Intro
    • ISSUE ON-6 2018FA Frankenstein Companion
    • Issue On-5 - 2018Su
    • Issue On-4 2018FA Spirituality
    • Issue ON-3 2017FA
    • Issue On-2 2016SPR
    • Issue ON-1 2016FA
    • Folio 2 - Moon Moon 2019
    • Folio 1 - Vote - 2018
  • PRINT ARCHIVE
    • Fall 2018 Print Issue - Frankenstein TOC
    • Fall 2017 Print Issue - Manifesto TOC