It’s not the madness; it’s the getting there,
so lost you see yourself approach
as Failure shines its spotlight on the rocks below.
One can’t be a savior & also practical.
Comes Misstep smiling,
patting her bright blond ‘do, 
then Ridicule in his cindery business suit.
Oh, & Death you despise the most,
strikes at you first, & close.

To play the scientist Messiah
is a lonely stop in a church of one,
until you learn to work miracles
in public, raise the dead—
a dog will do—then fade
into chattering, busy background,
taking with you young Success &
letting others manage the business
of remembering.

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.

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