Flight, by Mitchell Grabois

 

Once you have tasted flight, said Leonardo

you will forever walk with your eyes

turned skyward

 

and when you are fourteen and initiated into sex

by a thirty-two year old woman

who lives in your parents’ hippie commune

you will forever look to the aged for

love

 

You will survey the wrinkles and age spots of women

with a particular greed

You will know that their old men are dying off

like flies

They can see the lust in your eyes

 

They long to be touched

to be taken

They want to tell you about their maladies

their bodies, their traumas, their children

but you will have none of it

 

Be Here Now, you tell them

with a certain cynicism

a dose of sarcasm

 

You will try to assess

from a distance

how much tightness

remains in their vaginas

before you’ve even said hello

 

M. 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.