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"Loop: A Reductio", "TO THE RIVER", & "Nanaimo" by Ryan Keating



- Photo provided by the author


—Loop: A Reductio—


A bowl of fruit loops completes

another revolution in the microwave,

making 13.7 minutes and counting

on high, the milk still boiling over

in rainbows burning on the cloudy tray

and the spoon sparking primordial.


Let it turn. There is no gravity.

Eating them cold feels like giving in

preemptively to entropy that unspools

everything eventually- so be volatile

now; chase lightning and catch it

by the spoonful, accreting chaos that

a bowl of fruit loops completes.




—TO THE RIVER—


The wooden sign with black background

and carved letters painted gold hanging

over the stairway to the underpass in downtown

Middletown at the back of the public parking lot

that crosses under the highway reads:


TO THE RIVER


And I imagine it being shouted

by an ancient hero pressed into urgent courage,

running toward the concrete stairwell,

fist raised to the dusk, head turned back

to address the weary mob just long enough

to spark them into obedience, and for me to capture

the moment in my mind and join them

on the banks to lay down my weapons, too.



—Nanaimo—


Brown needles fall like anxious thoughts

on the trail I did not expect to walk today,


becoming path and past below me far

enough to watch them blur away.


New trees sprout from dying stumps,

as signposts leading to my clearing,


where the water in the lake is still enough

for every splash and echo, hearing


in them the Father’s voice from sky

reflecting - I am loved and good enough.




Ryan Keating is a writer, teacher, and pastor on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. His work can be found in publications such as Saint Katherine Review, Ekstasis Magazine, Amethyst Review, Macrina Magazine, Fathom, Fare Forward, Roi Fainéant, and Funicular. His chapbook, “A Dance In Medias Res” is forthcoming from Wipf and Stock.

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