Mr. O’Flynn Speaks

Mr. O’Flynn Speaks

Tyler Justin Smothers

Ecclesiastes said it best, but here I am repeating
The lines which follow, sneaking along the grassy path
To Lady Wisdom’s gate out front— her gaze is greeting.
A worn voice cries, “Vanity of vanities; all’s vanity. Wrath
Of earth are we, and to earth we shall returning be!”
From Solomon, the mouth of Israel’s great King
Whose fall would tell our tale from wisdom’s heath.
It’s Pisgah from which Old Moses looked through scrawny trees.
“Be careful what you see now, boy, for in the knowing
You gain great Sorrow,” Mr. O’Flynn says, porch swing-
Bound. “I Walk the Line” whistling broken and breathy beneath
His cigar. Hacked dust settling in his red whiskers, He’s always humming.
He coughed so much he didn’t want to say much more.
He shook our hands, kissed our heads, and went out to the store.

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Tyler Justin Smothers
Poet & Teacher

Tyler has been published in The Mid/South Anthology, a publication of Belle Pointe Press. He teaches writing & Medieval history and literature to seventh graders at a classical Christian school in Oklahoma City.

Photography by Paul Morris