Letter to a Far Away Friend

By Ryan Quinn Flanagan

I come out of the bathroom and sit down

to write a letter to this friend on the other side

of the world who is expecting another.  Another son

according to his letter.  That makes two. “Another mouth

to feed and another bum to clean,” he confesses.  But he is happy,

and I am happy for them both.  They are good people the same way you always

imagine the Amish are even without knowing them.  And trying

to find the words to express such sentiments, I stop to shoot tiny red elastic

bands at the wall wondering why Marlene Dietrich sounds so sexy

and bullfrogs do not.  Maybe it is because I have seen both, and Marlene

looks nothing like a bullfrog.  Sight is a powerful thing.

Maybe Homer didn’t need it and I do.  Perhaps I should include a few

pictures with my next letter back.  They have eyes on the other side

of the world too.

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, The Academy of the Heart and Mind, Setu, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.