Patrick accidentally injected
over an ounce of engine grease into the middle finger
of his right hand
They should have amputated it, said his wife
It cost us $16,000 to fix
and it’s still not right

I sat on the couch stroking a mangy cat
I didn’t notice it was mangy
but after we left my wife mentioned it
I grimaced
Patrick had a poor white trash approach
to pet care
but I’d forgotten

At the door I asked him if their dog Teddy
was still around
Teddy got cancer, said Patrick
I miss him
He’d be barking right now
if he was here
He never trusted you

Mitchell Krochmalnik Grabois was born in the Bronx and now splits his time between Denver and a 120-year-old, one room schoolhouse in Riverton Township, Michigan. His short fiction and poems have appeared in hundreds of literary magazines in the U.S. and internationally. He 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. Grabois’s novel, Two-Headed Dog, is available for all e-readers and print at www.barnesandnoble.com.