doo wop kids byJohn A. Grochalski

 

the

three of us

were in calvin’s basement

trying to sing

the book of love

and failing miserably

calvin couldn’t hold a note

and neither could i

ryan could hold a note

but only

if he was singing broadway musicals

in a high school play

but we wanted to be

the next r&b wunderkinds

doo wop kids

three white

catholic boys

from the suburbs

suckered by r&b music and rap

into thinking

that we could be anything

we were

cultural appropriation

before we knew

that it wasn’t appropriate

to appropriate

we wanted something special

that would

get us out of the suburbs

out of pittsburgh

and into a charmed life

we would’ve

done better

studying medicine

yet there we were

oh i wonder, wonder whooooooo…..

while calvin’s sister

sat in a corner

rolling her eyes

she said

that we sounded like a pack

of dying cats

which might’ve been something

but it wasn’t enough

to catch the dream

because this morning

years later

i’m sitting here in brooklyn

soundless

and hungover

and calvin is out there in illinois

raising kids

finding god

checking the papers

to see if ryan has won a tony yet

or if he’s somewhere else

living the mortal life like us

and waiting

to

die. 

BIO: John A. Grochalsk is a published writer whose poetry has appeared in several online and print publications including:  Red Fez, Rusty Truck, Outsider Writers Collective, Underground Voices, The Lilliput Review,The Main Street Rag, Zygote In My Coffee, The Camel Saloon, and Bartleby Snopes.  I am the author four books of poetry The Noose Doesn’t Get Any Looser After You Punch (Six Gallery Press, 2008), Glass City (Low Ghost Press, 2010), Starting with the Last Name Grochalski (Coleridge Street Press, 2014), and The Philosopher’s Ship (Alien Buddha Press, 2018).  I am also the author of the novels, The Librarian (Six Gallery Press, 2013) and Wine Clerk (Six Gallery Press, 2016).