Correspondence

once more the dream where bundled mail arrives
a soldier’s warm vision replacing nightmarish rifle shot


I leaf through envelopes cyan rectangles green-edged flats
packages Playboys Rolling Stones I locate my name


tearing the flap to find what? friendly musings?
rejection? stranger’s love note? the obituary of God?


riddle unsolved I wake early please someone surrender
the message still I’m waiting hopeful uncertain still









Ace Boggess is the author of two collections of poetry, The Prisoners (forthcoming from Brick Road Poetry Press) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003), and two novels, Displaced Hours and Beautiful Ambivalence (Gatto Publishing, 2004 and 2006). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, Atlanta Review and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.