WE NEVER WANTED TO BE FORTUNE COOKIE CHILDREN

Yet there we huddled: curled inside our shells,
our futures already written and pressed

against our bodies. The ink
wet and viscous. The letters

hollow, ringing. Your lucky numbers are…
But listen now: to the crackle of plastic, to the snap

of a splitting sky
spilling light into the corners

of our home. Hurry—
there you go. Keep clinging.

Your toes swing beneath you
as you watch shingles, walls, a chimney

tumble below. Your fortune flutters,
sprawls unconscious across sidewalk.

You don’t let go to save it—
you let go because we must

fall

and hit the ground limping
before we pave a real road.

By Kaitlyn Wang

Biography:

Kaitlyn Wang is a high school senior from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a poetry reader for Polyphony H.S. and a poetry editor of Soundings, her school’s art and literary magazine. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, and she is a California Arts Scholar.