"Quick Fright" by Ace Boggess

Quick Fright

Stretched by arc lamp,
the stray gray’s shadow head
creeps the fence line
as if cast by a moonlit
burglar, flashes startling suddenness,
though the cat up by the road
barely moves—spare,
casual bobbing of the head—
before it turns & vanishes.

This is the lane ghost
stories travel, told later
to children who believe
what haunted us was real:
flicker of a midnight phantom,
the surprise of it; mystery
brought by a hulking abyss
lurching, bounding; terror
stitched by the allure of night.

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: Grace Welch

Photo Credit: Staff