Childhood never happens again
and I remember standing over the grass
like some impulsive unnamable god looking down
over jungle canopy, watching armies move against armies
through miles of dense forest, patches of weed growth
just local encampments taking orders from orders
as battles raged all across the front lawn of the house
my only father would be paying for
for the next 25 years.

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many mounds of snow. His work can be found both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Fevers of the Mind, Cultural Weekly, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.