Fortune

Assistant Editor Blessing Christopher: Kelle Groom’s moving poem introduces a new way to manage grief, showing the emotional journeys one must undertake in the quest for healing.

Listen to Groom read the piece:

Fortune

When Do Ho Suh 
said that his fortune teller 
told him he has five horses 
and that means he travels a lot 
I wonder how many horses I have. 
There’s a fortune teller 
across the street from my house. 
I saw the sign on the back door 
of a strip-mall store while 
at the car wash looking out 
a window into a parking lot. 
My fortune so close it could have been 
the door to a laundry a bakery a smoke shop. 
But I have had bad luck with a psychic 
I have been told something unbearable— 

               that my son died 
               because I was not ready 
               I am ready        I am ready 

 It is boulder-rolled on top of me 
pressing the air out of my lungs 
I can’t risk it again—hearing something 
worse than anything I can imagine. 
Still I wonder how many horses 
I have if they are wild or tame 
if they are waiting for me now 
stamping their hooves 
ready to take me to you.