Gratuity Rex

 

He told his driver to take him to the airport

and since he was the driver

he drove to the airport

and he thought about tipping the driver

the conversation was friendly

enough

 

but something about the driver irked him

some people just don’t get on

 

so he decided to be polite

but firm

 

unloading his own bags

from the trunk

 

and since the airplane would not be invented

for another half century

he had to sit in the airport terminal

for quite a while

 

before his

flight.

 

Retreat

 

There is a tiny hole in the wall

and I take off all my clothes

and climb into it

 

and it is hard to move

but I have never been claustrophobic

in small spaces

 

as I squeeze and winch and turn

back towards the hole

 

peering out

 

to notice a perfect hairy bearded representation

of myself

hunched over the keyboard

 

typing a poem

perhaps

 

that may look a lot like

this one.

 

Flying Car

 

There was a flying car

that looked just like a bird;

feathers, beak, and talon –

the whole thing,

but everyone knew it was a car

and not a bird

because it was said there was

a tiny driver inside

with a seatbelt made of blood

and tinted windshield eyes,

making his way around the world

in record time

with a giant brown worm

in his mouth.

 

That Afternoon I Spent as Snow

 

the

snow

 

fell

from

the

roof

 

and

I

yelled

 

the

whole

way

 

down.

Backpack

 

The mines had closed down,

the foundry too

 

jobs were scarce

 

so when the opportunity

presented itself

he pounced,

 

jumping on the backs

of complete strangers

in the street

who would grow angry

with many threats of violence

 

because they did not understand

that you take work wherever you can find it,

and just how hard it is to be a backpack

when you are so used to

being a human.

 

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his other half and mounds of snow.  His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Word Riot, In Between Hangovers, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.