A Mistress To No One But Time

By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

cordant umbilical, 
a mistress to one but Time; 
that flurry of falsehoods, coats of paint  
sporting jammed zippers, 
dredging lakes of hard sink water  
with cracked cups for hands, 
persistent blackheads in the facial tick  
lime disease grass 
when something catches your eye  
like an errant frisbee  
from freckled double-dare water-winged children  
of the long splashing summer

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, Borderless Journal, GloMag, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review. 

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