A good friend will cause you pain today. She
will not see why even if you try to
explain. You will think you are going mad.
You will wish to kill someone. Try not to.
Your other children will suffer enough
without you compounding things. Suck it up.
Try to avoid awards ceremonies.
Jealousy is ugly. Schadenfreude
is also to be frowned upon. Mostly.
Church will become the worst hour of your week.
You will spend the whole time praying no one
turns around. God will appear not to care.
There are no trophies for surviving.
You will not sleep well tonight, or ever.
You would not trade places with anyone.
(a fortune-cookie poem, originally written for a prompt from Robert Lee Brewer over at Poetic Asides)
Penguin Poems 
nice…some really cool lines with deep wisdom embedded in them through out this…very cool…
Wow, Andrew. It did strike me as a fortune cookie poem. You took us through a whole gamut of emotions.
A very catchy rhythmic poem Andrew…… Very well written…… Your third stanza was very light hearted advice and I thought the poem was going to end in a chipper, maybe humorous way, but it became the opposite and despair just absolutely rings in the last stanza. I was totally not expecting that and it is incredibly deep emotion….. Again, very well written….
You gotta love life through the eyes of a fortune cookie. I agree with the others that there are some excellent lines here. I appreciate the unique quality in which you wrote this piece.
this is terrific– I wouldn't want to do without my schadenfreude: no trophies for surviving unless you count the poems we write to pull ourselves out of the abyss every day– xxxj
Creative and nicely written !
ha – better to stay in bed then…smiles…creatively done andrew..enjoyed the german word "schadenfreude" smiles
after the first two stanzas, I felt like it was a fortune cookie…well crafted… an interesting and enjoyable read.
Oh do I ever resonate with these words……..a lot of hard-won life wisdom here. So well expressed. Love the last line. Yes, hard, and yes, we would trade with no one(who knows? it might be worse!)
Andrew, this is quite the fortune cookie! I love the stanza on church, because Lex is a pastor, and you can always tell who's there to get into worship and who's "taking it like a vaccination!" I call it the "get out of Hell free card." And if one is lucky enough to know oneself, the last line is the truth. Amyhttp://sharplittlepencil.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/o-men/