Complementary

 

This poem is about purple,

and teal,

and lemon meringue pie—

 

about sage green

and chicken, spatchcocked,

and grilled.

 

This poem is about wrapping myself

in a silk-slick black robe, disappearing into midnight,

being seen.

 

It’s about color—

and taste,

and smell,

and feel,

 

and things that just make sense

when they don’t.

 

Like when

and how quickly

we made ourselves one.

 

How it all could have been undone.

How we could have been

undone.

 

But contrast,

and tang,

and memory touch,

 

and savory savoring—

holding on

when it hurt so much—

 

saved us

from us.

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

dVerse oln

 

Brother

I dreamt we were dancing

in the backyard

the way we used to.

 

Soft, cool grass

beneath our feet,

lights and stars twinkling

against the dark.

 

You’d lift me up

because you could

and we’d fall down laughing

as some 80’s song

played back

all our truths.

 

How did we fall

into this?

Onto opposite sides

of the seismic crack

in the earth of our few years?

 

I suppose we were

always broken from the start.

Already finished,

the way stars collide

and quit something

small and beautiful at birth.

 

We could never

be to each other

quite what we’d wanted—

differences too marked

to reconcile.

 

But I will go on

dreaming

until the dancing

draws us home.

 

 

© 2023 Jennifer Wagner

 

dVerse Poetics Musical Muses (I am too late to link)

Poetic Bloomings: Shall We Dance?