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
punxsutawney phil
said there’ll be more winter chill—
but around here
there’s winter cheer and (root)beer,
tell that mole—
‘cause hawks are going to the super bowl
© 2026 jennifer wagner
poetic bloomings #580: relative cold
photo © ian wagner
When I woke up this morning,
those fresh-baked Ghirardelli brownies
began whispering things to me.
Things only my husband should say
to me in the dark—
or like
when I woke up this morning.
They turned poetic, Neruda-esque,
“I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees,”
intoned
those fresh-baked Ghirardelli brownies
from their sugary-rich depths,
so silky-smooth, while I innocently sipped coffee.
So velvety they were indeed, so fresh, when they
began whispering things to me.
© 2026 Jennifer Wagner
A Cascade Poem for dVerse MTB
The challenge didn’t specifically state that all stanzas must have an equal number of lines (tercets, etc.) so I took a bit of creative cascade license.
“I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.” “Quiero hacer contigo lo que la primavera hace con los cerezos.” – Pablo Neruda, from “Every Day You Play.”
image generated by me using substack image generator