Brief Hope for Interesting Times
by Ace Boggess
6 a.m., clear-seeing in crisp, crystalline January dark,
I glance up from my smoke & see the beam of a laser
fired from the moon, stretching, angled south
(good riddance, Florida), before I notice
red flickers of an airplane’s lights: a contrail appears
to shoot from the curved lens.
We could’ve been at war with the moon, I think.
That would be new. I nod, resigned to the fantasy
of momentum. Out of nothing, nothing comes.
Out of the moon, too. There’s no rapid pulse of love
in this static life. The enemy of my enemy is a dull affair.
Ace Boggess is author of eight books of poetry, most recently Tell Us How to Live (Fernwood Press, 2025) and My Pandemic / Gratitude List (Mōtus Audāx Press, 2025). His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Hanging Loose, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes, watches Criterion films, and tries to stay out of trouble. His first short story collection, Always One Mistake, is forthcoming from Running Wild Press.
