Gates

 

Gates

 

Reworking old efforts of expressing my love and then I rip it up

Onto a new page

You beam right at me all bright white and clean

And I burn easily

I give myself permission to cry

The pain is too great not to anyway

I don’t write

There’s a part of me that wants to lay down and die

And there’s a part of me that does

But then there is you

A new page

And I see that bright white and clean as something different

You give me so much to fill

And the rest of me gets up and writes on ###

 

 Mitchell Flanagan

  

Mitchell Flanagan is an artist, writer, and musician. His poems have appeared in the magazine The Chronogram in August of 2010 and December 2011. His work has previously appeared in Ariel Chart in April of 2020 and April of 2021. He's working on a collection of short stories, novels, and poetry books. He's hoping to put these works out soon. He also writes songs, plays bass, and sings with his band Cold Heaven who recently released new music and a new album called Unraveled. He lives and sleeps occasionally in Newburgh, New York.