Cargo

Ace Boggess

he/him

A ship burned in the Atlantic,
sank. News said it was hauling
sports cars from Porsche &
Lamborghini. First thought:
inflation’s high, and
now the cost of a Porsche
will go up until I can’t afford
a car I couldn’t afford before.
Not that I’d drive one,
unless it were an automatic.
Never learned to shift a stick.

In his youth, my stepbrother’s
life goal was to own a Porsche
by age 30—missed his marker.
My life goal was to win
the Nobel Prize for Literature.
That ship sank a long time ago,
after my addiction to oxycodone
but before I went to prison.

In prison, my life goal was
to get out of prison—a smaller ship
that carried a different cargo into port.

My stepbrother might
never own a Porsche,
especially now as the price
goes up. Hope I’m wrong.
I’m rooting for him,
though we rarely see each other
except passing in chain stores,
both of us burning ships
on a burning ship’s distinctive course.

Next Poem

Ace Boggess is the 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 Collection films, and tries to stay out of trouble. His forthcoming books include poetry collections My Pandemic / Gratitude List from Mōtus Audāx Press, Tell Us How to Live from Fernwood Press, and his first short-story collection Always One Mistake, from Running Wild Press.