to abby wherever you are
i watch the little girl
sitting across from me
she is four years old
and is as impatient
with this stalling subway train as i am
she kicks her legs
and squirms in her seat
and complains to her mother
in impatient little kid whines
mama’s reaction is a mantra of shushes
and the impatient bark of her name, abby
mom has a fussy infant to attend to as well
i wish that i could act out like abby
kick my legs and squirm in my seat
impatiently whine to my wife
about infrastructure and the decline
of american ingenuity
but i’d end up in divorce court
i wish i could tell abby
that in thirty minutes
we will all reach the end
of this horrible saga together
that i will gallantly carry
her brother’s stroller up two flights of steep steps
as her mother offers many thank yous
and abby leads us up and up
toward the light of the quickly moving city
where the big tall buildings
aren’t always big tall lies
and a taste of the american dream
is as delicious as an ice cream cone.
About the Author: John Grochalski is the author of the poetry collections, The Noose Doesn’t Get Any Looser After You Punch Out (Six Gallery Press 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), In The Year of Everything Dying (Camel Saloon, 2012), Starting with the Last Name Grochalski (Coleridge Street Books, 2014), and The Philosopher’s Ship (Alien Buddha Press, 2018). He is also the author of the novels, The Librarian (Six Gallery Press 2013), and Wine Clerk (Six Gallery Press 2016). Grochalski currently lives in Brooklyn, New York, where the garbage can smell like roses if you wish on it hard enough.
Image Credit: “116TH STREET/COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STATION. PLATFORM AND STAIRS TO MEZZANINE. – Interborough Rapid Transit Subway (Original Line), New York County, NY” The Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 