Ants
MITCHELL KROCKMALNIK GRABOIS
For my research, I captured ants and put them in a cardboard case, but they chewed through the walls of the case and escaped. You should have known better, said my major professor. Thus, I never received my PhD.
Then, in 2003, I accidentally ingested rat poison. I think they call it Warfarin, and sell it to humans to avoid strokes, but I was way too young to be in danger of a stroke.
I am Bengali. I have dishonoured my family. My arranged marriage has been disarranged. Or is it unarranged? Now I must go to America and work for my uncle, who runs a cheap motel.
Poison comes in many forms. Some of it is white powder. Some of it blows in the wind. Some is traceable, some not.
I will become a stereotype, a cartoon man, greeting guests.
In Greece, I saw a young woman put her arm down her lover’s throat to the elbow, thinking she could retrieve the deadly drugs he’d ingested. I could have told her it was a Fool’s Move.
I chew coal for extra energy. Wind turbines blow a deadly breeze my way.
Then, in 2003, I accidentally ingested rat poison. I think they call it Warfarin, and sell it to humans to avoid strokes, but I was way too young to be in danger of a stroke.
I am Bengali. I have dishonoured my family. My arranged marriage has been disarranged. Or is it unarranged? Now I must go to America and work for my uncle, who runs a cheap motel.
Poison comes in many forms. Some of it is white powder. Some of it blows in the wind. Some is traceable, some not.
I will become a stereotype, a cartoon man, greeting guests.
In Greece, I saw a young woman put her arm down her lover’s throat to the elbow, thinking she could retrieve the deadly drugs he’d ingested. I could have told her it was a Fool’s Move.
I chew coal for extra energy. Wind turbines blow a deadly breeze my way.
Work by Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois appears in magazines worldwide. Nominated for numerous prizes, he was awarded the 2017 Booranga Centre (Australia) Fiction Prize. His novel, Two-Headed Dog, based on his work as a psychologist in a state hospital, is available for Kindle and as a print edition. His poetry collection, THE ARREST OF MR. KISSY FACE, published in March 2019 by Pski’s Porch Publications, is available here. Visit his website to read more of his poetry and flash fiction.