You’d Think the Mafia Would Take the Year of the Rat More Seriously
Close ranks, clean house.
Vacation for most of the year.
One behind the ear for good luck.
But it’s business as usual.
These wise guys don’t seem so wise to me.
You’d think the Mafia would take the year of the rat more seriously.
Look for wires in more than the backs of their televisions.
Old friends you haven’t seen in a while suddenly show up
wanting to get chatty.
To reminisce about old times
that are still open cases.
Leaning in close, so attentive.
But what do I know?
Some solitary Mick.
With no paid informants
of my own.
I’m sure the made men think they
got it made.
Down at the Mediterranean social club
where the old timers play dominoes.
Behind dark roaming sunglasses so thick
they could be a pound of butter.
About the Author: 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, As It Ought To Be Magazine The New York Quarterly, Cultural Weekly, In Between Hangovers, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.
More By Ryan Quinn Flanagan:
“He Brought His Canvases Over”
“It’s a girl I can tell, we’ve had nothing but trouble”
“Why Answers are Never the Answer”
Image Credit: From “Faune des vertébrés de la Suisse” Public Domain. Image courtesy of The Biodiversity Heritage Library
As It Ought To Be 