the corpse vanishes by ace boggess

                          Banner Productions, 1942
        

Lugosi again with stare made of kittens
& honey, behind it teeth.

                           brides prefer orchids
                           to prepare them
                           for the long sleep

How he fills the screen with his madness,
love.

                           a wedding day
                           a celebration
                           a funeral home on call

All he wants is his wife forever
to be young & beautiful.

                           lovely wives
                           leave the loneliest
                           widowers

With his charm, he could play devoted Valentino,
but always in his heart, & ours, the Count…

                           “death do us part”
                           they say &
                           then it does

…like a yellowing blurry photograph of bodies
in a place reporters speak of as their morgue.

✱✱✱

Ace Boggess is an ex-con, ex-husband, ex-reporter, and completely exhausted by all the things he isn't anymore.  He is author of two books of poetry: The Prisoners (Brick Road Poetry Press, 2014) and The Beautiful Girl Whose Wish Was Not Fulfilled (Highwire Press, 2003). Forthcoming are his novel, A Song Without a Melody (Hyperborea Publishing), and a third poetry collection, Ultra-Deep Field (Brick Road). His writing has appeared in Harvard Review, Mid-American Review, RATTLE, River Styx, North Dakota Quarterly and many other journals. He lives in Charleston, West Virginia.