Storytellers, Poets, Dreamers

shining, twinkling—

winking morse code

in the cold clear of night

                

peering toward hills

graced by tempered moon

and gathering breaths like visions

in baskets of words

illuminated,

holding gold, like dust—fragments

in upheld palms

releasing them to jump gracefully

spin, twirl like fireflies

climbing in the tenebrosity

and falling like stars 

on shoulders

whispering to hungry ears

a glittering of seasons

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

dVerse OpenLinkNight

The Truce

sitting in the dust

accusers round her, thick—

with pride and spittle

dribbling their bearded chins

fingers pointing, fists shaking, rocks in hand—

the ground trembling with cries for justice

‘such women’ they yell, violent distaste rolling

off their tongues

one by one, they felt the mirrored shame in His words

until only one accuser remained

as she waited for the airless moment to pass

and a stone to pierce her

the two of them breathed slowly together, seconds ticking, until

she put it down, rose up, and began to pardon herself

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

*His words

For dVerse, Armistice/Truce/Making Peace with Poetics

Settling Upon November

The artistry of SueAnn.  Used with permission.

Damp yellow leaves

and a hanging gray

settled upon November

with sharp scents of burning wood

and smoke encircling chimneys.

Head down, she trudged ‘home’

rain splattering her jacket

and hiding bright tears.

November, the month

she knew more than leaves

were dying.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For dVerse Poetics: Through the Artist's Lens 

Night Witches (Nachthexen)

They flew in the cold,

in the pitch-blackness of an evil sky,

riddled with bullets.

No radios.

No parachutes.

2 bombs.

Engines cut

on the Polikarpov U-2,

to creep

up on sleeping monsters,

to visit their dreams

with light,

and bring the Reich and Reign

closer to hell.

Started them up

in mission, resolute,

crawling out on the wings,

on a limb,

for the rest of us.

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

 

Did you know women flew airplanes in combat in WWII?  I didn’t until I visited the Flying Heritage Museum recently.  The 588^th Night Bomber Regiment was made entirely of women who flew the PO-2.  They would sneak up on the enemy by cutting their engines, drop bombs, and then restart their engines to get away; even crawling out on the wings, mid-flight when necessary, to get the props going.  And then go and do it all over again throughout the freezing night.  Truly heroic.  The Nazis began to refer to them as Night Witches because of the terror this tactic inflicted.  Seemed like the right time of year to write about them.

The photos:  (top) a few of these amazing aviators.   And (right) the PO-2, the tail number honors the 23 who earned "Hero of the Soviet Union" citations. And (left) the lettering on the fuselage translates into "Revenge for Dusya," a tribute to the first Night Witch to be killed in combat.  30 of them were lost in all.  If you click any of the links here I recommend the "Revenge for Dusya"...really some fascinating reading from the book A Dance with Death.

Linking up to OpenLinkNight at dVerse, an amazing site for poetry.

Gloom

cobwebs thick upon your hands

dirt underneath your nails

embedded deep

buried

            alive

you feel the crust

of tears and dirt

stuck to your lashes

            your nostrils

choking

you make shallow breaths

repeat your name

you are

not                   dead                 yet

remind yourself

to come back

to the living

keep scratching and clawing

out

of

the

dark

someone will need

your survival story one day

Copyright 2012 Jennifer Wagner

For Ella's prompt at Poets United: Web