Standing in a Vineyard, Souring All the Grapes

By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

They could not stop arguing.
Lobbing the most vile of accusations at one another.

At this wine tasting in Southern Ontario.
In spite of the wonderful weather.

The host trying to ignore them as he poured.

These two vipers having escaped the pit.
Now standing in a vineyard, souring all the grapes.

So that you would taste it in the bottle
when it came time to pick the harvest.

That petty jealousy that kept them at each other’s throats.
Surrounded by all those grapes 
that could not escape that overwhelming anger.

Their rancid lives infusing everything,
you could feel it! 

A sudden heavy cloudiness of sky.
No one driving and everyone sauced.

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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PLEASE NOTE: ARTICLES CAN ONLY BE REPRODUCED IN OTHER SITES WITH DUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENT TO BORDERLESS JOURNAL. 

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