Free-Man Dance

by Ace Boggess

Free-Man Dance

There are no steps to the free-man dance.
You could go right. You could go left.
You could flail, flounder, fumble, fall,
then bound back for a second round.

Why worry anyone notices. No one does.
The dance in the wild goes on for days:
searching for work, lagging behind,
bending your arm toward your lips

with lit cigarette or coffee cup,
painting the town any shade but red.
It’s hard to dance the free-man tango
after the convict funky chicken.

There’s too much frantic movement &
not enough rhythm; too much 
leading & not enough knowing
where in the hell to place your hands.

Ace Boggess is author of eight books of poetry, most recently Tell Us How to Live (Fernwood Press, 2025) and My Pandemic / Gratitude List (Mōtus Audāx Press, 2025). His writing has appeared in Indiana Review, Michigan Quarterly 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 first short-story collection, Always One Mistake, is forthcoming from Running Wild Press.