Saturday, September 1, 2018

RYAN QUINN FLANAGAN



RYAN QUINN FLANAGAN

IT IS BRAVE TO STAND NEAR WINDOWS

It is brave to stand near windows.
There are melanomas to think about.
And snipers from neighbouring
rooftops.

And glass that is sharp when it breaks.
You could bleed all over your nice new floor.
You don’t want that.

And I hear the air is all polluted.
It brings a chill with it.
You could catch a cold.
And die just for breathing.

It is brave to stand near windows.
With glancing milk saucer eyes
to lap up the wasteful day.




HANDSOME RED RAILINGS

I am a stairwell
with two emergency exits
in case of fire

concrete
in my beliefs
with handsome red
railings to express
alarm

no wonder
everyone always
walks all over me,
always in a hurry

you can tell the ones
that are on a diet
because they don’t take
the elevator

sweating it out in the trenches
for a few weeks until
they cheat.




LASER POINTER HEAVEN

No chalkboard of mine
will falter for the public
school system

presidents 1 through 52
belong in a deck
of cards

you shuffle this time,
I’d hate to be accused of anything
other than crop circles

drink up

neither of us will see
the next century

I have done the math

carried the one over
and everything

I don’t know about you,
but I’m well on my way to dust
already

jailhouse snitches seem affable
to me

the way they want to talk
like the little old ladies that come
to my door for the church

pretending laser pointer heaven
will stop eluding dirty
litterbox cats

and the way you stand with your
hands on your hips
makes me think of suspension
bridges

the ones that people jump from
when they can’t make rent

a man should be able to make a living
or a baby, he can’t have both

that is straight from the
river’s mouth

Paul was the walrus

I am the river

row houses
are four of a kind

I got row houses,
how about you?

Just show me your cards.
It is not the same thing
as nudity.

RYAN QUINN FLANAGAN

RYAN QUINN FLANAGAN is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Our Poetry Archive, Setu, Literary Yard, and The Oklahoma Review.

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