GB Ryan — Filling in Open Pit Mines with Plastic Cups

1

Suddenly asked if I expect

to live beyond my death somehow

I say no as most people do

 

but I’ve heard that the pope has said

atheists can go to heaven

 

2

The chicken noodle soup

had turned to a green mush

in the can

 

which was gross till I saw

I had opened a can

of split pea

 

3

This time of year, she said,

you can tell the people

with small children.  We talk

of witches, masks, cobwebs,

carving eyes in pumpkins.

Others need a moment.

 

4

When I returned in hope to the supermarket

a woman held up a manila envelope

she knew I had forgotten in my shopping cart

because she and I had been through this already

several times.

 

You can leave an envelope containing poems

and no one will ever take it, I told someone,

who said that leaving poems in supermarkets

could not be looked on as an effective way to

distribute them.

ryan gb headshot

G.B. Ryan was born in Ireland and graduated from University College Dublin.  He is a ghostwriter in New York City.  Elkhound published his SURPRISED BY GULLS in May 2015.