Death Of A Fortune-Telling Machine

Poem by John Grey

Death Of A Fortune-Telling Machine by John Grey captures the eerie demise of a pizza parlor oracle—where shattered glass reveals tangled wires and prophetic confetti, silencing the gypsy who once sold futures for quarters.

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Someone's busted the fortune telling machine
in the foyer of Lenny's Pizza,
the one with the long-haired gypsy
silk-screened inside its glass case.
No more 25 cents for your future
condensed on a two-by-four-inch card.

Through the cracks, you can see
wires spitting in all directions
like a Russian conductor's hair,
broken bulbs, belts twisted off,
even a confetti of paper leaflets
at its twisted metal feet.

This thing will never work again,
condemned to rust away between Pacman
and a gum-ball machine.
But it seems contented, resigned,
despite the disfiguring.

Its soothsaying days are done.
The future’s now in time’s hands.

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John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident. Recently published in New World Writing, City Brink, and Tenth Muse. Latest books, “Subject Matters”,” Between Two Fires,” and “Covert” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Paterson Literary Review, Amazing Stories, and Cantos.