The Shadows of Clover

          you have to get in close
          low to the ground with worm’s-eye view

          knees bent & head bowed
          off-center right like the Golden Mean

          so as not to block the arc lamp’s yellow dim &
          there they are: bubbles black like rodent holes

          mouths for pneumatic tunnels
          sucking diminutive messages through the earth

          darkly perfect round & leafless
          speckle & splatter on the old paint

          you feel you could thrust in a finger
          in search of lost rings or to scratch a serpent’s chin

          if only these weren’t so easily erased
          by your gigantic clumsy other you

          smashing silos & outbuildings
          you monstrous destroyer of all worlds

Ace Boggess is the author of two books of poetry, most recently The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, River Styx, North Dakota Quarterly, and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.

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