Friday, July 20, 2012

Summer Crickets


we held them
in an empty jar
holes popped into the lid

trickling grasses
and bits of dirt
to make their new home

they were always gone
by morning
set free as we slept

by grandpa
saving them
for tomorrow’s hunt


Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

The Telling


she carpeted her windswept fears with conversational banality
every time he chanced upon her truths

when those raw elements exuded from her blood to her tissues
she could hold them back no longer

she had no more strength to restrain
those flooding fibers,

the secret self, less understood but more familiar even
than the blouse of self-belittlements she had grown accustomed to

with tremulous hand she peeled back the covers of her deathbed
confession

when the things she could never say
began to drip, horrifyingly, from her lips

she knew she’d been dying to tell him
it was death not to


Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner 
Linked in the 1st Anniversary Edition of dVerse Poets Pub OpenLinkNight

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Unsung Rain


I held you in my hands,
cupped you to my face,
drenched myself in your flood,
and hid tears in your presence
                        as a secret we shared.

Your music put me to sleep
and drowned the echo of sorrows
in long nights you rocked me,
showering drops against the pane
—were you begging to be let in?

When you stayed until the morning
washing and making things new,
I’d wake and sing my insensitive song,
frowning, I’d begin…
“Rain, rain go away…"

Even then you would sigh,
contentedly, from heaven;
peering sheepishly from behind clouds
as I wiped the sugars off my mouth
from the fruits that were your labor.

Never did you seek applause of me,
always willing to play sidekick, straight man, to our comedic sun
while I laughed among flowered mornings
that without you
                        would never have been quite so sweet.


Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Reconciling the Sea - a series haiku


watching driftwood
roll in                   
silently                  



slow sea breeze
blowing salt
into old wounds



the undercurrent
an ocean
between them



the tide
rinsing away
bitter roots



fingers
like seaweed
intertwine



their kiss
on the beach
even seagulls speechless



tongues make
slow laps
home


Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

added to dVerse Poetics: Whatever the Weather and Poets United Poetry Pantry 

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Crumbs


the crumbs of midnight
still hang on the eaves of disappointment
while she longs for tenderness
from an empty bottle
of hope

it stares back, blankly
wordlessly reminding her
unfittingly placed
it does not spring eternal

nor can it button
the suit of outgrown
reasons she pulls the cork
to suck from its desiccated dregs again 


Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner
added to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night