Thursday, December 14, 2017

An Invitation


Photo © 2017 Ian Wagner


Poems
are not safe.

They’re risky.

If you take one for a walk
you might start to think differently
about life, or death, or something,

and you might not like thinking

differently.

What does this mean, you say,
as if I need
another question
I can’t answer . . .

and so avoid the poem
and the heart of it.

True poems
have one
no matter what they tell you—

a poem is a creature
ready to pounce
or lay at your feet
licking your toes—like life

—hungry,
waiting,

and not so bad after all.


© 2017 Jennifer Wagner


For dVerse OpenLinkNight…and an invitation to check out the new dVerse Anthology, Chiaroscuro, available on Amazon (I have a poem in there, too).