Throwing Her Lava Lamp into the Volcano

by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

I get up while she is still sleeping.

Throw her lava lamp into a volcano.

 

I want the lava to go home

even though Thomas Wolfe says

such things are not possible.

 

I have freed a prison of globules.

Lapped greasy philanthropy on a

sweaty full-stride cinder track.

 

Worried about my breathing

and never the world.

 

Just this origin story lava

that used to plug into the wall

and light up for the general

entertainment of others.

 

I have freed the slaves.

Magma is waiting.

 

A return to the core

before my return

to her.

 

Ryan Quinn Flanagan is a Canadian-born author who lives in Elliot Lake, Ontario, Canada with his wife and many bears that rifle through his garbage.  His work has been published both in print and online in such places as: Evergreen Review, The New York Quarterly, Cultural Weekly, The Rye Whiskey Review and The Oklahoma Review.  He enjoys listening to the blues and cruising down the TransCanada in his big blacked out truck.