[audioplayer file=”https://admin.rattle.com/audio/BoggessMango.mp3″]
MANGO SMOOTHIE
I come to your door with a mango smoothie
because you are sick your world inverse
like that Star Trek episode
where bad Kirk’s goatee reflects the Jolly Roger
leaning in I watch you sip sunny nectar
exhale only shadow
I know I cannot heal you
love never a healing word
as I know from your trailing mascara
you lack faith to keep this down for long
at least I have offered a favorable flavor
for the coming up again
like a bottle of sauce
to dress the lesser meat
—from Rattle #43, Spring 2014
Tribute to Love Poems
__________
Ace Boggess: “I have long believed in a journalism of poetry. I try to show the news of the day (which means that if it’s a slow news day, there are lots of pictures of squirrels in trees). I also have a special love for special love poems. It might be said I started digging up the corpse of Neruda many years before a Chilean judge decided to do the same.” (website)