Ghostskulls and peppers
line brick-and-mortars
where Santa Fe licks heels of tourists
emptying their pockets of tin.
The warm, earthy scent of blue corn
tortillas gallops on high desert wind—
here, where chance remains
of another time find me—a castaway
in some longebegone
Puebloan city—
hungry for a taste of spice
as ancient as Eve.
© 2026 Jennifer Wagner
dVerse Poetics
like winter sun warming the crisp outline
of evergreens on frost’s last kiss,
like an impression of stars
bursting in indigo nightframe,
like orion, swift-slaying, swaying
between boughs,
she is electric, blue-jazz summer sky,
ricocheting
with all the fierce beauty
of a flowering storm
© 2026 jennifer wagner
q44: flower
photo © jennifer wagner, from las noches de las luminarias, desert botanical garden, phoenix, az
