As a Passenger in a Golf Cart Searching for Alligators Inside a Gated Community


 
 
 
shoeless shanghaied riding the twilight

vehicle jerking beneath me

like a roller coaster on the upslope

 

what will we do if we see one?

the word ‘suddenly’ comes to mind

like in a mystery novel a real page-turner

 

I scan the circumference of the water

hazard—16th hole—then I’m past it

gliding among the prefab houses

 

palm trees like serifs added to their yards

my stepmother almost seventy

still maneuvers like a hummingbird

 

she shows me one of the lakes &

another pond a dock a cul-de-sac of reeds

we never locate anything with teeth

 

before darkness drags us home

“don’t give up” she says “they’re here &

time to time they come to look for us”

 
 
 
ace-boggess-3
 

Ace Boggess is the author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). Forthcoming are his novel, A Song Without a Melody (Hyperborea Publishing), and a third poetry collection, Ultra-Deep Field (Brick Road). 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.