Letter to the Turkey Vulture on the Side of the Road Eating a Dead Deer's Eye

--Ace Boggess

       

you have to be the ugliest ferryman

for souls of the soulless dead

you gob of tobacco juice spit &

hardened above two crooked pipes

everyone hates you yes you

the wilderness that devours

the skillful thief on Farmer's Lane

sucking liquor from a ripe plum

I wanted to say I understand you

a victim of appetites so intense

you would boil yourself in broth

if only you could live to taste the flesh