Do You Dream of People in Masks Now?

Ryan Quinn Flanagan

DO YOU DREAM OF PEOPLE IN MASKS NOW?

We were almost two years into some blurry day drinking 
pandemic that had failed everyone
when she asked me that question.
	
Do you dream of people in masks now?
she asked.
	
I had never thought of it,
but told her I dreamt of them the old way.

I could see the surprise on her face.
I could tell that she did not.
Not anymore.

It was probably another six month before 
I had my first masked dream.

Then I started to see them everywhere.
Jumping out of the popcorn ceiling overhead.

When I told her I finally saw them,
she seemed to feel a little better.

Not that I was seeing what see was seeing,
but that she was not alone.

All that wine.
The way you start to clank 
when you walk.

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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