Free Man Learns It’s Getting Late

Ace Boggess

He hasn’t worn a watch since prison
where precision was irrelevant.

Minutes should mean more
to a free man, he thinks,

but they flitter in some abstract space
like meteors during a shower—

did he see them? were they real?
how many went unnoticed in the night?

He is no longer bound by numbers:
count, chow, Parole Board, discharge,

good time. It was a good time,
wasn’t it, when he put his clocks away,

days not marked on calendars,
minutes written in the sand beside his name.

Ace Boggess is author of seven books of poetry, most recently Tell Us How to Live (Fernwood Press, 2025) and My Pandemic / Gratitude List (Mōtus Audāx Press, 2025). His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Hanging Loose, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes, watches Criterion films, and tries to stay out of trouble. His first short-story collection, Always One Mistake, is forthcoming from Running Wild Press.