New Poetry by Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois

Painter

When I graduated high school

I figured I’d spent enough time

sitting at a desk

I thought about everything I’d learned

in school

and out

and figured that my most salable skill

was painting houses

I was living in L.A.

which made house painting

possible year-round

not like Michigan

where one of my cousins lived

where winter shuts down the world  

I got a truck

ladders, brushes

got cards printed

gave them to my friends’ parents

Word- of-mouth took care of the rest

Some friends came back for holidays

and said: You’re smart

You could have made something of yourself

but every day I renew the world

I take old surfaces

and refresh them  

put gladness in the hearts

of homeowners

and neighbors

and even people just driving down the street

I don’t trouble myself with ideas

At lunch I sit against an unpainted wall

and chew the sandwiches my wife puts together

I scribble notes to myself

like this one

and sometimes on the ladder

I wonder why I do it

- Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois 2015

 Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over eight hundred of his poems and fictions appear in literary magazines in the U.S. and abroad. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize for work published in 2012, 2013, and 2014. His novel, Two-Headed Dog, based on his work as a clinical psychologist in a state hospital, is available for Kindle and Nook, or as a print edition. He lives in Denver