Why Worry When You Don’t Need to Go Anywhere

question asked by Grace Welch

Fear, RE: imprisonment. I
have a Prometheus Complex,
dread of being chained
in place. Bar & razor wire
block the metal image of my path:
today it’s snow fluffing concrete,
abandoning my transportation
in a cave.

Need to know I’m free to leave,
even if I’d rather stay,
hide in private dark of a basement.

Freedom might be wasted on me,
but I crave awareness of it.

Watching the whitening:
looks like a snare I can’t pull out of,
not by force, logic,
chewing through a limb caught in a wire.

Ace Boggess is author of five books of poetry, including Misadventure, Ultra Deep Field, and The Prisoners. His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Notre Dame Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. He received a fellowship from the West Virginia Commission on the Arts and spent five years in a West Virginia prison. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.