Julian Flavin

Montreal-based publishing entity Metatron is guest editing Everyday Genius this month. We'll be featuring excerpts from our new fall catalog as well as Canadian writers we like. Today's author is the playful Julian Flavin.

You, You Are A Mango

I'm tired, I wish this chair had armrests. My mouth tastes like I was just sucking on a cereal box ..... but you,,,,,, you are a mango, suspended in the air, 10 meters above the corner store where I first learned that Doritos were no longer "my thing". And I see you up there and I start to break down a bit, and its night time obviously and I really feel at that moment that I know time is really passing, that I'm flickering like the lights that take a second to turn on fully. And I hope all sorts of things but I'm afraid of letting go of myself, I'm not scared of heights I'm scared of depths. And you are high up, way up there, and that's OK with me. So I glide, wipe the extra-runny snot from my nose with my sweater's sleeve, and smile at you. It's a quick smile but I know you see it and I know I've done it and I know I have to enter the corner store and I know once I do, that's it. And when I smile, my teeth glow with your light. And I open the door, put my head down, lilt my shoulders and, dissolve. I become the beer in their cases, and the 5 cent candies and the Doritos, and my heart aches, but its ok. You are up there, and I am also sour candy, and I think about how similar

we are,

my love,

how different,
how endless,,,,,

Julian Flavin is a young artist who lives in Montreal Canada, and going through life like everyone else, realizing many of the same things, whether ecstatic or disheartening. Something Happened To Me (Metatron, 2014) is his first collection of poems.