ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Ace Boggess is author of three books of poetry, most recently Ultra Deep Field (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2017), and the novel A Song Without a Melody (Hyperborea Publishing, 2016). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, RATTLE, River Styx, North Dakota Quarterly and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.
My Condolences
I'm sorry for your loss. I'm sorry for your loss.
I must practice lest I get words wrong:
this simple thing I don't know how to say.
I've never been a mourner, never worn
those black glasses grief prescribes.
I confess that I can't empathize
with what way you react when people die —
now someone close, your heart, your wife.
How might I sneak you past
the weepers in this sadness study group,
I who’ve not yet read the introduction
to their text? I'm sorry for your loss,
I'll tell you, mechanical as a grinding clock,
but why should you listen? What good
will it do? I'd be like a pallbearer
showing up with broken arms —
more dead weight on the uneven path,
drunken lout who came too late,
singing his song of sorry for your loss.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
