"Rock Concerts in the 80s" by Ace Boggess

Rock Concerts in the 80s

Thrusting hips, tonal innuendo,
singers raising mic stands
the way peacocks lift feathers
to attract a mate. Music
was sex, & sex music, 
blended with anger of desperate youth.
Sexy anger. Bomb blasts 
of sweat from center stage
oozed erotic splatter. 
Up front, young women
wanted to touch it 
against their cheeks; 
young men watched 
as if found pornography, artful,
that they couldn’t understand: 
a fully-clothed bonfire 
dance, a bacchanal of bluster.

Ace Boggess

Ace Boggess is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2021). His poems have appeared in Michigan Quarterly Review, Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, River Styx, and other journals. An ex-con, he lives in Charleston, West Virginia, where he writes and tries to stay out of trouble.

Headshot Credit: Grace Welch

Photo Credit: Staff