Love Poem With Mile Markers

by Ace Boggess

In the art museum where you denied Renoir his simple beauty;

in the Blenko glass factory where fires lit your eyes like devils;

in the Carnegie where an awful, awe-inspiring T. rex loomed,

its bones encased in lead

to protect us from its ongoing murderousness;

in the Palace of Gold at New Vrindaban,

peacocks & roses our spiritual purpose;

in the megalithic prison at Moundsville

seeing convict graffiti marring walls &

bullet holes scarring a space used for practice;

on a scenic train ride from rural Cass

to the top of Bald Knob covered in snow in September;

in Morgantown where we stopped for a simple lunch at Chili’s—

I have loved you, white-lined, pushing the longest road.