Statewide-Lockdown, Day Thirty-Eight

The apocalypse has

A best-if-used-by date:

Three days from now

The lockdown lifts, doors reopen.

Wish it were a joyous occasion —

The wedding of a princess

To herself,

The end of a war we shouldn’t be in.

Too many variables.

Also, irrational beings on Earth.

One spark burns a forest.

One misstep pulls society down a well.

Wouldn’t we rather rubberneck

At the accident

Than be a participant in it?

I’m apprehensive 

We’re driving too fast on an empty road, &

There’s a deer ahead. Its antlers

Will shatter like Christmas baubles

Bouncing off the hood.

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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.