Two Poems by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Extras

 

They were filming 

a new movie in town 

and they asked for a few hundred

extras to pretend they were dying

and she said we should go downtown

and see if we could get into the movie,

with that big name actor who bathed in horse piss

and made up his own religion,

but I only wanted to be me and alive, and I knew no one

wanted that, they never had.

 

She tells people she made it into the movie,

even though you never see her.

She accused me of that very same thing for

all the time we were together,

not “seeing her.”

 

I guess it was fine when the big 

movie houses did it.

 

 

When Lovers Become Informants 

 

Sharing all those nights together.

Sitting up in bed, telling secrets.

 

Then the turn comes.

Often without notice.

 

They shoot back out into the world.

Tell everyone they know

everything they know.

 

The things that are certain 

to hurt the most.

 

As though

there was never any love 

to begin with.

Bio: Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and mounds of snow. His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, The Asylum Floor, Horror Sleaze Trash, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.  He enjoys listening to the blues and cruising down the TransCanada in his big blacked out truck.

Two Poems by Matt Borczon

My First Job After the War

Was as a

prison nurse

and the inmate

in our isolation

cell had been

shot 4 times

in an attempted

robbery and

I watched two

nurses stumble

over bandaging

him like monkeys

trying to type

Gone with the Wind

 

late into 3^rd

shift I decide to

fix the mess

they made out

of him and I

understand really

no one learns

this kind of

thing in school

and they don’t

see enough gun

shots in the ER’s

of Erie Pennsylvania

for anyone to

get good at it

 

when I finish

the kid asks

me why are you

so much better

at this than

those other nurses

 

and I was

only three months

back from Afghanistan

and I was

still not ready

to talk about

any of it not 

with my wife

or kids

or father

 

not about Helmand

or my nightmares

or all the holes

I bandaged and

debrided or about

all the wounds

still too fresh

to close

 

just feel lucky

that I am better

than them

I said as

I walked out

of his cell.

 

 

Aaron Was Scary

 

I used

to fight

him in

karate 

tournaments

around town

until he

became an

enforcer for

the local

drug gang

 

eventually

they say

we all 

meet someone

tougher than

we are

and when

a group

from Detroit

decided they

wanted to

control the

drug trade

in Erie

they sent

some guys

in only

Aaron didn’t

go down

like they

thought he

would

 

a few

days later

someone

killed his

son walking

home from

school and

no one

has seen

Aaron in

almost six

months

 

they say

he just sits 

home sad

and alone

broken 

in a

way he

never saw

coming.

 

Bio: Matt Borczon is a nurse in a plasma donation center and a retired Navy sailor. He has published 18 books of poetry. His latest Post Deployment is available through Dumpster Fire Press.