Detainee
#113943C
Andrew
Grossman
I
fly a few feet above the ground,
my eyes on the whirlpool of the sky,
unable to escape the benevolent giants
who came ashore at morning tide
and for a moment appeared to be smiling.
I
am afraid and call it expediency,
unable to resign myself to the river
that flows upward from the stream of flight.
It is the litter of suffering refugees
That bears me a few feet above the panic.
***
Andrew
Grossman was born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, where his
family owns a dairy farm in the Pennsylvania Dutch country. He
earned a BA in English from Pennsylvania State University.
At
Penn State, he began to write short stories and poetry, and was
cited for outstanding achievement by the Poetry Society of America.
After graduation, he moved with his wife to Washington DC, and
in 1984 he began his career as a graphic novelist, columnist,
and comics writer.
In
1991, he moved to Connecticut. By then, his comics and cartoons
had been published in every major market magazine in the US, including
The New Yorker, Reader's Digest, Saturday Evening
Post and Barron's, and he had become a major contributor
to various best-selling book titles, including Chicken Soup
for the Soul. While living in Newtown, Connecticut, he established
the electronic art database that has become the central source
for online humorous art, CartoonResource.com.
In
2002, he and his wife, Nancy, moved to Williamsburg, Virginia,
to help provide care for his mother-in-law, who was suffering
from Alzheimers Disease. The experience led him to refocus his
fiction writing onto themes of family, love, and caretaking.
He
now lives in Florida with his wife and two cats, Smittie and Princess.
©
Andrew Grossman