Ace Boggess

Sun-bleached moss in galaxies of bloom
as if shot by paintballs left to dry
on granite struck with your name.
Sorry. We’ll get you cleaned up,
attack with ice scraper &
jug of cold water from the car.
Who would want to go through death like this?
You’d have a laugh about it,
crack wise on how you could drive the crate
they shipped you in, causing Mother to laugh
or cringe. Sorry, too, we couldn’t bring you
a vodka martini on the rocks to get you rolling,
or a radio blasting “Wish You Were Here,”
the live version, the one that sounds like jazz.

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Hanging Loose, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble. His seventh collection, Tell Us How to Live, is forthcoming in 2024 from Fernwood Press.