Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Forgiveness. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

embrace


to forgive you
i had to go back,
bitterness falling like leaves

picking up stones,
gathering them
by the basketful—

my skin, arms, and back
riven and bloodied
with the buckling load

i’d intended to throw
with my calloused
and burning hands

but the sun on the leaves
that day in october
was so glorious,

and i felt so rich,
knew i was so rich, that
i laid the basket down

at your feet and
stretched out
my arms

bitterness falling, gently,
like leaves



© 2019 jennifer wagner

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

offering



photo © 2017 jennifer wagner


a fourteen-year-old finger
has written R.I.P.
on the dirt of the grave in our backyard—

now crisp
in frost
the dirt clods
turn up in ant-like hills

the air is sweet offering,
unseasoned firewood, fresh chopped cords,
some stacked, some piled, waiting—
for lifting by strong arms

—like i am, scattered
near this cross,
lining up my betrayals
before you—

where I remember
how far,

how far
you’ve carried me



© 2017 Jennifer Wagner