Spraying for Spiders
Ace Boggess
along floorboards a four-inch running track where sprinters never see the finish line
chemical avenues clear as a layer of black ice on moonlit highways singing death
another simple stream policing doorframes closets& chasms between the patio planks
no sympathy to the widow
no cake for the recluse placed discreetly on porch steps
even the wolf meek but menacing drinks its last from the cup of Socrates
my heart has turned to arsenic I poison the poisoners
they will no longer stalk me from corners
standing out against white walls like buboes on the skin
or that taunting coin
tacked to doomed timbers of the Pequod
Ace Boggess is an ex-con, ex-husband, ex-reporter, and completely exhausted by all the things he isn't anymore. He is 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). Forthcoming are his novel, A Song Without a Melody (Hyperborea Publishing), and a third poetry collection, Ultra-Deep Field (Brick Road). He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.