Will Say Nothing Ill of You

except you ignored me:
worst offense to a man
of insidious loneliness
for which I hid in crevices,
swallowing handfuls
of pain medication
to blunt tremors of fear
about existing
in a world where others live.
When I told you,
you denied me
the simplest act, belief.

This is not to ask for forgiveness
or offer any; a last confession
you won’t hear
or accept as other
than proof there was no joy
between us, one more lie:
those many years
of miserable good times.

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, including Escape Envy (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2021), I Have Lost the Art of Dreaming It So, and The Prisoners. His writing has appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble.