Sobriety

I need a good relapse, a cradle.

I need a return to old ways,

Followed by the not-caring, not-feeling

Hours of enchantment away from news,

Thunderstorms, & the ignorant king

Who says too much while saying nothing

Genuine. I need (I say need because

I don’t want it, do: a contradiction —

Recovering junkies full of them)

Relaxing pauses from America, the virus,

Bigots, gun-wavers, death tolls, Wolf

Blitzer, also, with his instant hyperbole

Reading possible & thereafter saying

Likely. You used to be a pillar,

Wolf. What happened? I used to be

A junkie, & look at me now, pining

But not really. I wouldn’t go back

To silence the critic inside.

America, too. Look at you: shattered

Windshield, token to a broken game.

America, you’ve become a symbol

For other symbols on top of symbols.

What do you mean? I mean, I need

To keep clean, survive. How about you,

America? What will you do when

It’s time to sober up or die alone? 

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Ace Boggess is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard 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.