The carnival came around every autumn
I sucked a kernel of caramel corn from between my teeth and spotted the sign
For $17 she took my palm in her own like an aging book she'd been aching to pull from the shelf
After several moments of careful study, she cocked her head at me, all avian elegance
She gently ran her gnarl of purple polished fingernail through the crease of my "love line"
She clucked then, smacking her tongue to her teeth like she'd also been snacking on caramel corn
"Broken. Early on. But... don't loose hope because this next one..."
Her nail bit deeper into my flesh like a pencil demanding its sharp trace be heard by the drafting paper
"Do you see? It goes the whole way, and then some. From this realm to the next. This one, you are here for. You are here for each other and always will be again."
I snatched my hand back like her incongruent words had branded my skin
Fairytales weren't broken stories but I tipped her too much for the feeling brewing in my belly
"You'll see, sweet one, someday," she said with a glimmer of knowing in those beady bird eyes.
I've been thinking about hands a lot
The paint and the skin and the moments they've tried to make something of
I’ve been thinking about seeing, someday.