The alligator I never saw waits in its pond in my father’s Florida 

as though I’ll return to fail to witness its maw. I haven’t been 

south in eight years to visit my dad, longer than I spent in prison 

where he didn’t visit me. I might not see him again—my father, 

not the gator who lives in dreams of free-range dragons 

rising from murk & swamp. He doesn’t like to travel; I do, 

but not so far I can’t return after a glimpse of monuments, 

abandoned penitentiaries, or bread factories where honeyed scents 

play with my hunger for poetry. I write about my father 

from a distance, the same one we shared when we were close.

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.