Mitchell Grabois

At the Clinic

In Community Mental Health
I work with people who disturb me
I’m trying to ease their disturbance
but they’re adding to mine
That’s only fair, I think
some proportionality

I shake their hands without flinching
a masterful performance
I remember grad school
a whole course in how to shake hands
without flinching

We practiced shaking hands with our classmates
while they made grotesque faces
It was stupid
and fun
not like the real thing

One classmate didn’t have to make grotesque faces
She had some disease that had left her face
a network of scars
She had the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen

She was scary
but I’d fallen in love with her
and she knew it
though I’d never given any sign
that I was aware of

I used to think of what it would be like
to meet her parents
a meeting likely to be so freighted
that none of us would be able to say a word
Mitchell Krockmalnik Grabois has had over seven 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. 

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