“The number of rice grains left in your supper bowl

foretells how many pockmarks will appear on your lover’s face

Sleeping on your back will flatten your head’s shape

but sleep on your stomach and you’ll induce nightmares

Eating the fat inside the crab sharpens the mind

so too the roe extracted from the steamed fish

Never let your feet touch cold water from the bathtub or

the sea on days when you’re menstruating

Pinch the nose before age six when the cartilage is pliable

so the nasal bridge will grow narrow and high

Drift asleep with your hair wet

and you’ll suffer from decades of migraines

You’ll wreck your eyesight poring over pages in low light

but looking at all things green from a distance can coax it back”