Madame's Crystal Ball
Mary Christine Delea
doesn’t lie. It’s from Romania, like her,
and sits on a silver base.
Decades ago, she lost her job
at the carnival
for telling the truth to giggly girls
and impatient husbands.
You’ll die typing in your car
as you drive
wasn’t just morbid. It made no sense
back then. And no man
wants to hear
his soul mate
is not the woman
sitting next to him in the tent,
even if he knows it’s true.
She gets by reading Tarot
and doing mending. The ball is
for special customers--
old people cheated by con men,
striking workers worried
about paying next month’s rent,
pregnant teens in red states who need
to know which seemingly kind stranger online
can actually be trusted.
The ball hums in
her apartment’s bay window,
glows on full moon nights,
makes her
a good living
and never gives anyone a future
they don’t want.
Mary Christine Delea is the author of 1 full-length poetry collection (Main Street Press: The Skeleton Holding Up the Sky) and 3 chapbooks. Delea's website (www.mchristinedelea.com) includes a blog, where she posts writing prompts each Sunday, and poems she loves on Sundays and Wednesdays. Recent and upcoming publications include Passionfruit Review, Pink Panther Magazine, and Playing Authors anthology.