Certificate by Ryan Quinn Flanagan

She showed me her certificate,  

was most proud.  

I'm not sure what it said she could do   

that she could not before,  

but she planned to have it framed   

and mounted from the wall.  

Asked me if I knew a good framer,  

so I guess the certificate was not for that.  

I told her I knew a mechanic who overcharged  

and could never seem to get the grease   

off his fingers.  

She kept taking her certificate out to look at it.  

Like it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.  

Running her fingers over her name so carefully.  

As if learning it all over again for the first time. 

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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, Setu, GloMag, Red Fez, and The Oklahoma Review.