a heavy garland of sorrow
releases from
my winter-ragged bones
sitting on this ginger-crumb beach,
dipping my sugared toes,
letting the water wreath
around my ankles
icicle clear—it’s here,
on holiday i hibernate,
and marshmallow-float
the weight, and gift,
of all this wonderland
© 2025 jennifer wagner
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Handprints, a nose print,
on the frost-filled pane.
A ghost? Of Christmas
past? A loved-one there
looking in at hearth
ablaze and home sweet
home. Golden light on
tinseled tree. Bows in
red and green. Gifts of
winter mirth and love’s
soft-mittened hand in
savored memories.
© 2025 Jennifer Wagner
MTB: Tableau Poem
The river holds a boat,
a canoe,
a drowning man.
The boat motors away.
The canoe slips past
with a swish-slap of a paddle.
The bent bough of a tree sways, stoops
to reach him.
He grasps the rough bark
of the living branch—
and lets go
of the splintering soft-shadows
of the speedily dying
fading toward the light
who’ve no time now.
Reaching shore, will he
sputter curses
at his fellow man
or praise the Creator
in the helping hand
and become a palm-giving man?
© 2025 Jennifer Wagner
“…only God can make a tree.” - Joyce Kilmer