Dead Bees

 

Photo © 2023 Jennifer Wagner

All your belittlements

have fallen at my feet

 

like dead bees.

 

They stung

and left me mumbling incoherently,

stumbling toward water.

 

But, I’m still standing.

 

And they are now

what they always were:

fertilizer

 

for my next

most magnificent

bloom.

 

 

© 2023 Jennifer Wagner

 

A Survivor's Credo

(and nature’s echo)

In spite of adversity, I will be

lavishly happy.

I won’t

bear the shame not mine.

I will not

punish myself

for the ugliness of another.

And, I will see

the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

sunshine on wildflowers,

creek beds rippling coolly—

a doe bends, sips

                       

she sighs heavily, light

with the headiness

of goodness after rain

© 2016 Jennifer Wagner