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Independent, Reader-Supported Publishing
Benjamin S. Grossberg
Benjamin S. Grossberg is a distance runner who spends his summers tending a small backyard apple grove in West Hartford, Connecticut. His debut novel, The Spring before Obergefell, is forthcoming in October 2024.
Poetry
I Was Carrying a Velvet Wingback through the Streets of Houston
Who isn’t, at twenty-three, sexy? In never-been-kissed / cutoffs with buzzed hair. Did I even have a beard yet? / I looked like the virgin I was—was, at least, in all / the interesting ways. “Chicken,” they would’ve said / back then.
February 2024
Poetry
The Hairdresser
sees the old woman — wheelchair bound, pushed by her daughter — glance / out the window, and goes in back / to fetch a shower cap. The woman tugs her daughter’s shirt and says, almost / inaudibly, It’s raining. / And it is raining. Barely.
July 2020
Poetry
To The Gentleman Who Asked For $500 To Cap My Chimney
Rain was getting in. A lot of it. / And there was evidence of bats. / And when I asked you why it was / so damn expensive, you cited / careful measuring, a high- / quality cap, an exacting process.
September 2015
Poetry
The Magic Of Macy’s
I am nineteen, standing behind the Coach / counter at Macy’s Herald Square. / This feels like my first real job: I take / a bus to the city; I wear a suit; / I ask strangers if I can help them, / even though I actually can’t help them, / since I know so little about leather goods.
March 2013
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