question asked by Grace Welch
What leads us
to ugliness,
a term I prefer
to the one
you chose?
I robbed &
wounded; you
loosed havoc
against friends &
lovers. Neither
of us wanted
to be monstrous.
It takes awareness
to wage war
in heaven, &
we had none,
broken beings
swinging
our glistening,
bloody swords
at the sun.
—
Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, 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.