Now & Then

 

 

Now, the streets are worn and cobbled,

but among them I still hover, hobble—

survivor of the fate, the madness, of the war.

 

Then, it was otherworldly,

that Italian sketchbook summer,

flesh-flushed out in lush, romantic watercolor form.

 

Then, we walked

through wildflowers,

caught our dresses on the hands of orchids,

bridged the brushsong birdsong,

daisies threaded in our hair.

 

Now, that page has turned,

but I return to the art of tenderness alone—

stumbling, trying still

to catch our spirits’ crash

before the fall broke us to stone.

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

Shay’s Word Garden Word List: Tenderness

dVerse Poetics: Fated, OLN

Day 24 NPM

 

Aristotle's Kiss

 

Photo © 2024 Jennifer Wagner

There are places

my heart goes to,

cracks in the earth

softened by sunrise

or sunset.

 

Remember those pink cookies

we’d get on the way to work

to share over coffee?

 

I haven’t had one in years,

but here they are,

hanging like a sun

from a tree.

 

Perfectly round, like fruit,

to pick, to share,

to illuminate the darkness

we’ve been held in for too long.

 

Aristotle’s kiss

has been long and deep.

All that salt

needs something sweet.

 

Meet me here before

the blue-black of night,

before crow-dark feathers

creep cold across our eyelids.

 

It’s nearing sunset.

I’ve one plate,

two halves,

and

coffee’s waiting.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

Poetic Bloomings

 

Reference: “Men cannot know each other until they have eaten salt together.”  -Aristotle

 

dVerse oln