RYAN QUINN FLANAGAN

 

 

Tour Guide Salad

 

Sitting at a small round table patio café,

laminated credentials dangling around the neck

over this tour guide salad; the fork becomes

a shovel when you are famished and still worried

about your weight.  All those miles over ancient cobbles

should keep the beast off the hips, but it’s a salad

light on the dressing, no croutons.  Carbs have done

more damage than wars and plague together if you are

to believe all those ads with the army of microscopic

print at the bottom.  Those illegible disclaimers like

climbing into bed with a frenzy of thirsty piranhas.

And I watch this one stare off into non-existent

mountains, think of tongs through the mixing bowl

showing everyone around.

 

The Man In The Rocking Chair

 

They sat around

talking about Marx

and the division of labour.

 

On chairs and couches

and a rocking chair

in the corner.

 

The man on the rocking chair

kept going faster and faster.

 

In a vigorous fever.

Out of all known proportion.

 

Until the rocking chair fell back

and broke into pieces.

 

The man got up,

brushed himself off

and left without a word.

 

Looks went around the room.

Everyone had assumed someone else

had invited the man.

 

No one could remember

inviting him.

 

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.