Poems By Mitchell Krochmalnik Grabois
Kung Fu
She was taller and heavier than me
and had a belt in kung fu
not black, a more dangerous color
I never saw her use it
but she was emotionally volatile
like my mother
so her deadly skills
were always on my mind
One day
she was showing me
a driftwood burl
she’d found at the beach
We were intimate
but she was standing
too close
She asked:
Are you afraid of
me?
I decided to be honest
and said: yes
She seemed surprised
After high school we were married
I achieved my childhood dream
of becoming a mail carrier
She worked in a shop that sold yoga clothes
to rich women
Altogether we had a good life
except for
her penchant for karaoke
every Friday night
Her voice was atrocious
painful even
but I couldn’t tell her
I was still afraid of her
She’d dropped kung fu
but karaoke was her substitute
Her voice beat me about the ears
punched me in the gut
until I could hardly breathe
and Jack Daniels was powerless
to help
Old
I am thin, but flabby
My muscles have atrophied
When I was young I could bench press
three hundred pounds
but that was an eternity ago
That person was not even me
but I serve my purpose in the world
I echo Joseph Conrad:
Your strength is… an
accident
owed to the weakness
of others
and your youth is turbo-charged
owed to my advanced age
Paradise
Taking Mark Twain’s advice
she went to Heaven for the climate
but found it too chilly
Don’t you remember
you gave me thyroid
cancer?
she complained to God
I don’t have a
thyroid
I’m freezing up here
Can’t you turn the
AC down
or give me some
better clothing
These wings are
fine
but if I wrap them
around myself
I can’t fly
I just have to sit
here
and it’s boring
I never liked to sit
still
If I didn’t have
anything else to do
I’d clean my house
So compassionate God
sent her to a place even warmer than Florida
where she had a whole new set of complaints
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Mitchell Krochmalnik
Grabois’ poems have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines in the
U.S. and abroad. He is a regular contributor to The Prague Revue, and has
been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, most recently for his story “Purple
Heart” published in The Examined Life in 2012, and for his poem. “Birds,”
published in The Blue Hour, 2013. His novel, Two-Headed Dog, based on his
work as a clinical psychologist in a state hospital, is available for 99
cents from Kindle and Nook, or as a print edition.
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