Ace Boggess, Winter 2017

Storm Clouds Over Fairmont
Ace Boggess

I’m in town to read poems about my troubles
“does it bother you
to talk about it?” someone asks
“no” I say “if I can’t feel
at home in my history
I’m a man with two faces staring at the sun”
not this sun
which hides
behind slow-
rolling cumulonimbus
while I stand outside
the hotel’s double doors to smoke—
adding my ashes to the graying:
it will rain soon
fanged pellets carving mist
there are no illusions here
the world is what world I have
I gather it around me
like a fireproof blanket
then walk among the flames I’ve set alight

Ace Boggess is the author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). His novel, A Song Without a Melody, is now available from Hyperborea Publishing. His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, Rattle, River Styx, North Dakota Quarterly and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.