Handsome, rich, self-assured and naïve, 
he is the kind of young man who falls 
under my spell. He wants more from me 
than to have his fortune told, 
but that’s all he will get. He’s enchanted, 
bewitched, beguiled by my smile 
even as I swindle him. I’ve tucked away 
the money he paid. He warms to the touch 
of my fingers which free his ring even as I trace 
his life-line. I’ll disappear before he notices 
what I’ve taken. If I tell his fortune true, 
I’ll say, Today you will learn a life-lesson 
you should never forget. 

The Fortune Teller (oil on canvas, circa 1595) by Caravaggio *

* Publisher’s Note:

This is the second version of a painting by Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). The Fortune Teller is held by the Louvre museum in Paris. A larger size may be viewed online.

Good Luck, the first version of Caravaggio’s painting, was produced circa 1594 and is held by the Musei Capitolini in Rome.

Wilda Morris,

Workshop Chair of Poets and Patrons of Chicago and a past President of the Illinois State Poetry Society, has published numerous poems in anthologies, webzines, and print publications, including The Ocotillo Review, Rockford Review, Turtle Island Quarterly, Modern Haiku, and Journal of Modern Poetry. She enjoys experimenting with different forms and styles of poetry, and has won awards for formal and free verse and haiku, including the 2019 Founders’ Award from the National Federation of State Poetry Societies.

Rockford Writers’ Guild (RWG) Press published Wilma’s first book of poetry, Szechwan Shrimp and Fortune Cookies: Poems from a Chinese Restaurant (2008). Much of her second poetry book, Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick (published in 2019 by Kelsay Books), was written during a Writer’s Residency on Martha’s Vineyard. Her third full-length book of poetry, At Goat Hollow and Other Poems, is hot off the press from Kelsay Books (June 2023). She is now working on a collection of poetry inspired by books and articles on scientific topics.

Her blog, active since June 2009, features a monthly poetry contest:
Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Three Poems by Wilda Morris in Defuncted: A Collection of Abandoned Things (24 May 2023) at Medium.com: “Workshop Words”; “I Am Not Writing About Daffodils. I Am Trying to Make Them Bloom Again”; and “Searching for My Dutch Ancestor”