Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over thirteen-hundred of his poems and fictions appear in literary magazines in the US and abroad. He has been nominated for numerous prizes, and was awarded the 2017 Booranga Writers’ Centre Prize for Fiction. His novel Two-Headed Dog, based on his work as a clinical psychologist, is available for Kindle and Nook, or as a print edition. He lives in Denver, Colorado, USA.

A Little Sad

When my two-year-old granddaughter tells me
that she’s a little sad
because her mommy’s at work
and she misses her
I fear that a little sad
will be a precursor for major depression
and wreak havoc on her life
as it did mine

But then I remind myself that
some emotion is natural
and important
Without emotion we are robots

Commander Data, on Star Trek
spent half his time plotting
how to feel

Kellyanne

Kellyanne Conway said that
everything she learned about life was on a blueberry farm
but she lies all the time
so who knows if it’s true?

Even she might not know
She might need to take a poll of her inner selves
to ascertain the veracity of her statement
but it may not be a large enough sample
to guarantee validity

At age sixteen she won
the New Jersey Blueberry Princess Pageant
She only won because she had kneecapped three of the other contestants
with an iron bar she found in her backyard

The victims never told because she had threatened to kill them
and even at that age her dead eyes were intimidating

At 20 she won the World Champion Blueberry Packing Competition
She didn’t have to use interpersonal violence to win that one
Her fingers moved like alien spiders
spinning hideous webs

Her mother was proud of her
more proud than when later
she finished law school

Kellyanne’s mother, a New Jersey Italian
was always suspicious of lawyers
In fact, she was as afraid of them,
as she was of Mafiosi and priests

She didn’t distinguish between the three
though Kellyanne tried to explain the differences to her
time and time again
over dishes of pasta in red sauce

Kellyanne is married to a litigator
They have four children
It is hard to think of Kellyanne
as a nurturer

It is hard to imagine any of the Trump people
as nurturers
How easy it was to picture Obama and Biden
truly and actively
loving their children

I imagine Kellyanne’s children
when they get older
going out into the New Jersey woods
to practice with automatic weapons
a militia in and of themselves

I imagine that one of them will grow up
to be a terrorist
or a school shooter
the one with the most ambition
the one who worked hardest at the blueberry farm
during his or her summers

My rescue fantasies so widespread
do not extend to Kellyanne
I don’t want to take her to a Zen retreat
She is way too far gone for that
Even the Buddha cannot save her
from her deep and pervasive suffering

She is only fifty but looks so much older
Her compassion—at what early age did it flee
and why?

There are so many questions but
I haven’t heard any of the talking heads ask them