melissa rushes in
      can somebody lend me ten ringget?

there is a fortune teller
out front of our hotel
and there are things she can see
that melissa has to know

she dashes away
to face future

harriet / amarlie and i
beg alvin and eddin
to decipher / our palms

we gather
laughing
around
the heavy wooden table

reading each other
from skin / not pages

the tellers gasp
at harriet’s / uncertain lines

ask me

       how many
       husbands have you had

the next day
melissa’s fortune teller returns
stations herself / sari clad
cross legged / on the hot
concrete / beneath
my window

three storeys up
inside / the ren-i-tang hotel
shutters open
to the sweltering heat

i tell my own

on a brand new
thirteen inch
samsung

-Maxine