When You Got Out of Prison, Did It Take a While to Adjust?

by Ace Boggess

Question asked by Sarena Fox.

 

At night, I can
turn the world
to darkness
with a twist,
no having to
tie a sock
around my eyes.

Friday, I walked a lap
of the yard. Just one.
It wasn’t the same.

Who says I have
adjusted, found
a warming bed &
new games to play?

Back then, I napped &
dreamt myself
outside the walls;
now I sometimes
dream myself back in.

 

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. His seventh collection, Tell Us How to Live, is forthcoming in 2024 from Fernwood Press.

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