still life/magazine cover

 

smashed fig leaves for tea on the table,

and collected plums—one three-quarter eaten,

 

white blossoms bowing half-mast

in a gleaming jade vase,

 

ironing board in the corner,

steam rising from the unplugged iron—

 

even an imagined whiff of perfume

of someone who’s just left the room—

 

my thoughts turn the page

and see

 

my parents

with their heads now bent with snow

 

and book a flight

home—

 

petals falling in three-quarter time—

like snow, like dust—

 

still life,

but collecting all the same

 

 

© 2026 jennifer wagner

  

Late for but inspired by Dora’s dVerse Poetics: Borrowing Bishop, with instructions to “dip your word-brush into Bishop’s poetic inkpot, as it were, consciously incorporating accuracy (detail), spontaneity (immediacy), and mystery (revelation)…”

 

dVerse oln #400

 

image generated by me using substack image generator