When I was young
My family and I used to go to a Chinese restaurant almost every week
The food was good and the servers were kind
It was one of our favorite restaurants in the whole city
Now, I wasn't a huge fan of fortune cookies
But just the mystery of what fortune was kept inside
Was enough to keep me interested
I don't remember every single fortune I got
But I'll never forget one of them
I cracked it in half and took out the little paper
Inside, it read
"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst"
As a child, I didn't really understand it
It was a common enough phrase, just not one you would say to a child
I tried asking my mother about it
And she explained it in terms I could understand
That fortune really stuck with me
Both the fact that it came out of a fortune cookie
And how unfortunately right it was
Years later, I have that phrase still stuck on my mind
There was a time that I had forgotten it
A time where I threw myself into everything
Only to watch it all crash into the ground
I never noticed if any of the fortunes I got from those cookies
Ever came true
I just wish I would have listened to the one
That mattered the most
YOU ARE READING
Beautiful Enough To Frame
PoetryTwo years in the making. Two years of my life put into words. There is nothing more left to say.
