ask me about the radiant hat
moon makes for that cloud face an hour before dawn
ask me about sitting on gravel staring through a playground fence
waiting like a godless monk for my mother to arrive
ask me how my hands trembled squeezing the knife
that cut me & drew new lines on stranger skin than mine
ask me about fidelity whether high or in-
how bodies in darkness cling to forgotten music
ask me why she put the cat out before she closed the door
ask me why I stayed ask me ask
ask also about softness &
how easy it is to name those better times
ask me why beautiful moments rob entire days of their despair
or why truth may be painful but it’s never personal
ask me what I did to deserve this &
what I did not do when the corner choir sang its shadows
ask me if & when & who the great who-done-it
it was I in the study with a candlestick
ask me nothing & I will wish no honest words
like forgiveness to be muttered in the dark
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 16, Issue 2.
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). He currently resides in Charleston, West Virginia.
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