The Italian Renaissance Rooms Were Always Her Favourite

By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Wednesdays at the art gallery are free
and this muted street girl in rags files in 
just after open, the old docent with veins like curdled milk 
sees her there all the time, standing with a smile,
truly admiring the art, these sores all over her face,
not at all like the many oil models in the pictures,
but she seems happy, almost delighted!
The old docent starts bring coffee they can share,
then homemade sandwiches for the girl.  She says 
her name is Ashley and that the Italian Renaissance rooms
are her favourite.  The old docent not wanting to spook her,
so she never tries to pry.  Under that sprawling Diego Rivera 
mural in the atrium with so many 
busy bronzed men at work.

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 Lothlorien Poetry Journal. 

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