Miss Gunney’s Only Soup by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

Sweet red wine soup by Richard Barley from Wikicommons

 

Little bits of arsenic added all the time,
trace amounts in Miss Gunney’s only soup,
that always has you on the mend;
straight chicken stock far as all the  
conscientious objectors can tell,
spitting up blood like a personal volcano,
getting sicker all the time
and the doctors kept at a distance,
Miss Gunney washes the blankets,
so protective of her favourite patient. 

A single deep kiss on the forehead  
each night. Something motivational  
from 1st Corinthians. 

Delusional moonlit  
through a midnight window  
propped open with the oar of a  
forgotten canoe  

that has sent so many  
down river.

***

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author residing in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many mounds of snow.  His personal website is: https://ryanquinnflanagan.yolasite.com/