Bibliomancy

(the old practice of using books to determine whom you will marry)

Begin with a thick book splayed open
on a kitchen counter and watch the way

the girl stabs and stabs at it with her eyes
closed. The little teeth-bites on the page

mean a screaming—the way peacocks screech
with disgust whenever they catch sight

of their own clawed feet. Each word pokes out
a new promise, a fortune, better than any cookie:

she will meet a boy who keeps smooth rocks
in his pocket. This is how she knows to listen for him.