how to start the day

 

photo © jennifer wagner

just for today, let’s

glory in the little

 

things,

 

swing as if our sky

doesn’t know

a hint

 

of night,

 

trip on daisies,

petal-clouds

 

of white,

 

fall down softly, dizzy,

with me

 

slide your fingers

across my lips

 

return to me

a hungry

 

kiss

 

 

© 2025 jennifer wagner

 

 

photo © jennifer wagner

 

for the word garden word list (dizzy, hungry, trip) and dverse q44 (hint)

 

photo 1:  fabulous book

photo 2:  fabulous ted de grazia painting from his gallery in the sun in tucson, az 

Cold

 

Ding!  Ding!  Ding!

 

Congratulations!

You’ve won a

Colonoscopy!

 

Mammogram:  check.  Results are normal

but let’s have another check.

 

Blood draw:  check.

Menopause:  check, check, check.

 

Hot flashes!  That’ll treat the cold of

all these needles and machines

and thinning skin.

 

An MRI, too!  What fun!

All those joyous sounds!

 

Cervical spondylosis

is as sublime as it sounds,

so let’s strap this cage to your face

to keep the party going while we’re at it!

 

You didn’t hear that?  Oh, it’s just as well.

Forgot your readers?  That’s OK, too.

 

Can’t remember? 

You won’t want to, anyway—

but enjoy!

 

We’re just getting started with you!

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

 

What Cold Is at What’s Going On

 

All

 

I don’t know

if I told you today

I love the way your beard oil

lingers on my fingers,

the way I get to smell you

even after you’ve left me

 

in this old house,

in the corner of the room,

with my desk and bookshelf

in just-right light

streaming in from the windows.

 

All of which

you put together

because you believe

in these words I write.

 

Have I told you today

I cried again,

thinking about that longing look

in your eyes,

wondering if I am pleased with this—

your offering?  How it

 

swallows me whole

as if the pieces of me

aren’t lying scattered here—

while you only see

the All

of me?

 

How often you say

I am much more to you

than any of these ripped-up, jagged

parts.

 

Is this an ode?  Possibly.

You are my silver-crowned king,

though some might shrink at what thoughts

those antique, unfashionable words might bring.

 

I say them because

you have me, All,

and treat me like your queen.

 

 

© 2025 Jennifer Wagner

 

Coming up on 27 years with this man.