Ontario – Page 4 – Borderless

Iron Maiden Voyage

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.

Seven Blocks

By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

The bust of an aging man by Rembrandt(1606-1669)

7 BLOCKS 

7 blocks from an untenable position,
the boys in the service fill sandbags,
pack them high as the walls of the 
county courthouse.

6 blocks of freshly paved roads,
the fowler’s avian arms outstretched
like the masts of barnacled boats
in the shallow harbour.

5 blocks is a fair distance for laboured breathers,
a peace offering in a brown paper bag,
the smell of the tobacconist’s all through
my clothes and peerless smoke signal mind.

4 blocks where the cramps set in,
I was once a young man:
sinewy, bothered, flooded as basement 
apartments during the rainy season.

3 blocks of office tower stairwells,
long lines for all the food trucks,
enough polished shoes to never bang
on greasy thrift shop windows again.

2 blocks from a joint decision,
all that sobbing and tears over the phone,
switching ears with an impatient receiver.

1 block of small boutiques,
the chocolatier with crushed nuts over everything,   
not a mother in sight nor strollered 
push cart child.

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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