After a Doctor Appointment

 

 

Nestled inside

the fifth largest city in the USA,

between little bookshops and mom-and-pops,

where people came to recover from

TB and asthma all those years ago,

they knew something then.

 

Some say

the signs are everywhere.

Well, there was at least this one.  Planted like a

flag under a slope of sunny sky.

 

I circled back.  Another look

with a tear in my eye.  Your healing blurry

but nearer.

 

Why worry?  It said.  Dead end.

 

Somehow it seems contradictory,

as if we should, anyway.

As if worrying is doing something.

 

But, like the sign says, it is.  Taking the

worry road

just brings us one step closer to dead.

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

What’s Going On?  Contradictions

 

Photo: street sign in the Sunnyslope area of Phoenix, AZ © 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

Morning

When the air is fresh

you feel it:  you get stronger

with each breath.

Your son

is slicing oranges

and it’s so sweet—

he’s so sweet—the scent

of his golden-brown hair

warm with sun.

The old deck creaks a bit

as you walk on it,

cracked and weather worn

as you are,

but still here,

still here.

© 2019 Jennifer Wagner

OLN