The Boat Suitors, A poem by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

The Boat Suitors

A poem by Ryan Quinn Flanagan 

I hear the resonance of water,
the lifeblood, by the dock at sur le mors
or dack at surly mor as our cockney
ferryman says, these two competing suitors
seated at the bow of a rackety rowboat,
waiting to be taken over to the main house,
the more thoughtful of the two with
a gentle sprig of wildflowers, the wiser of the two, perhaps,
with something for the mother; that plotting old hag,
that maker of introductions who may colour things
as she pleases; each man of similar age,
in Victorian period dress, yes, it must be Victorian –
perhaps I have climbed into an Impressionists’ painting
never created – those strained sinewy arms
of our contemptuous tippled boatman pushing
off from mossy shore.

Bio of the Poet: 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, Himalaya Diary, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.  He enjoys listening to the blues and cruising down the TransCanada in his big blacked out truck.