Iron Maiden Voyage  

By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

IRON MAIDEN VOYAGE

That faded band shirt way 
you wait for your order, 
got your whole life wrapped up  
in condiments  
 
the stark raver behind the cash 
with that falling fire escape of hair, 
on the run from everything but the law; 
it's one smile out the door and some 
butcher block cut up for the diary 
 
and you hear some power slave  
get his number called, 
some chunky oil slick wife beater  
with a fistful of straws instead of dollars 
 
and that ship has sailed  
somewhere in time  Ontario
as the fry hat emo kid slams a tray down 
in front of you -- 
 
that smell of stake ketchup blotted  
over all the tables  
as you search out some sodium spilled  
shanty by the bathroom; 
 	
a parking lot full of rust boxes  
pulled in on the lean,  
steering wheels hot to the touch 
from clutch to column  
under some heavy nowhere sun  
that just won't stop. 

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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