Free Man Goes to a Movie

He could’ve chosen dragons,

animation, action. He could’ve

found art, a heart-

warming tale in indecipherable indie

cinema, frame by frame

a painting from Picasso

in yet another blue period.

The free man picked zombies

because he lived with zombies

once, their lumbering forms &

zombie fists & blue tattoos &

neck veins bulging beneath red skin.

He must have been part zombie

himself, he thought,

to have survived five years

amidst monstrous mayhem

like a weed escaping

the mower’s blade.

At least he had books to read

about detectives, spacemen,

cowboys, Jean Valjean, &

zombies, too, as he lay in dark

of his bunk much like that

of the screening room

where bloodthirsty zombies

were ready to devour his brain

for more than two hours

out of his unchained day.

---

Ace Boggess is author of six books of poetry, most recently Escape Envy. His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Notre Dame 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 forthcoming books include poetry collections, My Pandemic / Gratitude List from Mōtus Audāx Press and Tell Us How to Live from Fernwood Press, and his first short-story collection, Always One Mistake, from Running Wild Press.