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Ryan Quinn Flanagan

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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.  Born in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, he worked as a roofer, sheet metal worker, truck driver and two stints in a book bindery before attainting Queen’s University and receiving a Master’s Degree in History.  He is the author of 24 books of poetry and four collaborations   His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Your One Phone Call, The Homestead Review, Pyrokinection, In Between Hangovers, Outlaw Poetry Network, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.

 

The Assassination of Arturo Toscanini

 

Is it fantastical to speak of wealth?

A wealth of nations that chain smoker Puccini could get behind

in the right light,

seated on the end of your bed this morning

I got to thinking of many things,

slamming my heel against the sloping fabric underside

like a human church bell lost to ceremony:

the blood in the wine, wafer body against tongue;

I could have dressed in the same sleepy mercurial fashion

as previous mornings,

stood in front of many unfavourable mirrors for judgement –

by happenstance, I could have done all manner of things:

your hamster on the wheel, what a stupid incarceration,

and our pink bistro dalliance under knife.

 

Later at the apothecary, I invested in many creams.

The bulbous nose behind the counter swoll with rage

and the season.

 

In the absence of love, a bus came to a stop.

I got on and paid the piper before sitting down

two-thirds the way to the back.

 

 

Docent at the Detroit Institute of Art

 

The sound of dead air

everything a muffled wind tunnel

distant cube vans and the trattoria

ligature marks over dirty ankles

and I think of the docent at the Detroit Institute of Art

the crippled way she lurched towards me

sunken eyes wet with age

(months instead of years in the

grander sense)

hunched over and frail as fine China

with the voice of a bullfrog

telling me about the special exhibition room

where a Frida Kahlo showing was going on

just past the giant Diego Rivera murals

in the great hall

which gave the non-believers something

to look up at

as well.

 

 

 

The Business of Pleasure

 

the trick

was to get you to the

island

 

front ending

the discounts on fuel

so that you

paid on the other

end

 

for that

once in a lifetime

snorkel with dolphins

tiki torch fire eater

open bar

 

experience

 

and left a positive review

on Trip Advisor

before the credit card company

called and you had to start fighting

with them

 

in

earnest.

 

 

To a Man who Believes His Face Can Save Him

 

razor burnt and pockmarked

a tiny scar above the lip from a

careless childhood

the sting of cologne over fresh wounds

wincing crow’s feet out of the corners of bloodshot eyes

deep furrows like trench warfare brought to the forehead

dug in with each expression

bushy eyebrows raised like the dead

and ferreted off to separate sides of the face

a deviated septum to please the anarchists

and when women run their hands down his cheeks

they will know the admirable sandpaper of his days

and men will find a wisdom that is not really there,

offer their hand in gratitude because friendship

is tricky, no one knowing just how bad

he needs a job.

 

 

Windows Shattered like Glass People

that Make You Bleed if You Touch Them

 

I am not at the water.

You said you’d be at the water,

but how can anyone

be certain?

 

This liver spot on my body ensures

we are not alone.

I sprinkle wood shavings down on the floor

and imagine myself walking through

a fine mist.

 

There is no hunger

where the appetite has been removed

like unwanted squatters.

 

Set upon this land

with metal locks on their duck boots

and a frazzled nonsense hair.

 

Windows shattered like glass people

that make you bleed if you touch them.

Dust storms starching lazy third eye colonnades

out of their last entablature.

 

You should be at the water.

A towel wrapped around the hips

as is the fashion.

 

I am not the water.

We would have met by now

if I were.

 

 

Website:

http://ryanquinnflanagan.yolasite.com

Books:

http://www.interiornoisepress.com/INP_HP_Flanagan.html

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Ryan+Quinn+Flanagan

http://erbacce-press.webeden.co.uk/#/ryan-quinn-flanagan/4554753521

http://search.library.utoronto.ca/details?6186304

https://www.bookdepository.com/Blue-Every-Flame-Ryan-Quinn-Flanagan/9780996109307

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ryan-quinn-flanagan/the-last-skidmark-on-the-pretty-blue-horizon/paperback/product-21201468.html

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ryan-quinn-flanagan/cartwheels-of-a-forgotten-turning/paperback/product-21211240.htm

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ryan-quinn-flanagan/florida-orange/paperback/product-22136424.html

http://nyq.org/issues/?id=64

Poems:

http://www.horrorsleazetrash.com/poetry/ryan-quinn-flanagan/

https://georgedanderson.blogspot.ca/2015/08/featuring-poetry-of-ryan-quinn-flanagan.html

http://www.evergreenreview.com/the-sidewalk-cleaner-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

https://youronephonecall.wordpress.com/2015/07/19/leather-interiors-that-used-to-moo-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

http://outlawpoetry.com/2012/06/05/ryan-quinn-flanagan-six-poems/

https://www.redfez.net/poetry/i-saw-face-capitalism-1121

http://www.thenervousbreakdown.com/rqflanagan/2015/11/he-cleared-his-throat-with-bulldozers/

http://homesteadreview.net/Spring_2016/flanagan.pdf

http://outlawpoetry.com/2013/07/13/ryan-quinn-flanagan-two-broadsides/

http://www.ascentaspirations.ca/epiphany27.htm

http://www.pyrokinection.com/2014/02/a-poem-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan.html

https://inbetweenhangovers.wordpress.com/2016/06/12/the-big-news-is-no-news-at-all-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

http://degenerateliterature.weebly.com/2-poems-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan.html

http://clockwisecat.blogspot.ca/2010/02/three-poems-by-ryan-quinn.html

http://madswirl.com/author/rqflanagan/

http://tclj.toasted-cheese.com/2014/14-2/terror-alert-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

http://www.fullofcrow.com/poetry/2010/07/ryan-quinn-flanagan/

http://www.cameron.edu/okreview/vol9_1/flanagan.html#26

https://clutchingatstraws.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/skipping-rosetta-stones-across-the-backs-of-the-ages/

http://tclj.toasted-cheese.com/2010/10-1/the-bottom-line-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

https://inbetweenhangovers.wordpress.com/2016/08/16/zinger-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

https://inbetweenhangovers.wordpress.com/2016/06/12/the-big-news-is-no-news-at-all-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan/

http://poetrybulawayo.blogspot.ca/2014/02/music-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan.html#!/2014/02/music-by-ryan-quinn-flanagan.html

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