The cost of happiness is not what you’d expect

By: Ace Boggess

See the ad online:

Holiday Sale. I’m out the door

as soon as I find my shoes,

off to buy you beat-

up records for a dollar each:

Hendrix, Sting, & Steppenwolf,

Peggy Lee & Three Dog Night.

More. A perfect score,

a haul, a treasure trove

of pennies for the well

of your impractical new love

for vinyl. With the price of LPs,

they might as well be tickets

for travelling into space

on a billionaire’s rocket.

Each fresh purchase

is like the germination

of affection in your eyes,

or like sitting next to you

during a joyful, weepy film

while you streak cheeks

with butter, lifting a hand

to tenderly wipe your tears.


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 and tries to stay out of trouble. His seventh collection, Tell Us How to Live, is forthcoming in 2024 from Fernwood Press.

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Four poetry collages