Ace Boggess' Poems

 

Why Can't You Rest Now That the Work Is Over?

medical questionnaire   

Been watching this movie for two years,

entranced by colors piercing shading.

There's an adventure in dreams 

the TV shares with my subconscious. 

Can't predict where movie & dream 

will merge, what part of me lies awake, 

anticipating the performance,

my next running-for-my-life. 

Ponder insecurities: sometimes, I can't breathe; 

sometimes, hope leaves me trembling. 

All of it bridges the film to sleep. 

Besides, work doesnt end. 

It continues like a subplot, a minor character 

with a single line repeated when pinwheels burn.

What Will You Make of the Evidence?

Alina Stefanescu, To You Whom I Fail   

No further judgment need be rendered. 

I said I did it by being there. 

Could? Did. Shouldn't have, 

but there were other forms of blues than these. 

Desperation wallows 

in a gospel of justifications. 

I've shivered before the court & 

asked for mercy. Nothing came.

How Often Do You Get the Social

and Emotional Support You Need?

healthcare questionnaire 

No time for depression

when everyone else 

calls for help &

I busy myself 

holding the phone.

I'd rather be a caricature

than a character. Let me

wear the clown face:

no one need care

if I fall down stairs,

trip on my 

outrageous feet.

I'll be there, 

painted, wielding 

my bucket of 

sawdust & gritty smiles.

Meteor

American International Pictures, et al., 1979

Apocalypse nostalgia

the end of the world is coming,

went. We saved a few

along the way,

though not before New York

(as ever) fell,

Hong Kong drowned

beneath the rising nightmare

of the sea. Of course,

Sean Connery's an asshole,

but he's righta bad combination

except when time to get things done,

cooperate with an enemy.

How skillfully he seduces

the Russian translator—

he has someone to protect. 

How he convinces us & 

the Soviets to point 

missiles away from Earth 

toward the asteroid,

preventing two catastrophes 

as if his god asked, 

Do I look fat in this universe? 

to which he answered No & 

answered Nyet.