Petit Larceny

Quiet as mosquitos in the night,

sneakthieves lifted concrete threshold tiles,

found them to be heavier than they thought,

dropped them a few inches up the hill.

I have been that desperate.

I’ve done my crimes & time, & all the while

not once did I consider stone a get

worth spending even one more hour in jail.

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