.
High Stakes
.
Seizing the high ground is important,
have you not read of the great campaigns?
.
And here this stooped man with his back to me,
a pile of stakes which he hammers into the soil above.
.
An old slag heap now repurposed and green again,
stakes driven deep into this unnatural hill to form a line.
.
A drooping pair of overalls, I see each faded denim strap
disappear over a mountain of disjointed shoulders.
.
The stacks from the nickel mines in the distance.
Billowing out their many black dahlia plumes.
.
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, Chiron Review, Setu, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.
North of Oxford 