Your Tonic Like Hawthorn

Hawthorn berries (Crataegus monogyna) 

Image:  Wikimedia Commons

you’re not

supposed to speak softly

in feather light whispers

at my throat

language foreign

to a scrap like me

my mini-heart flutters

in its hummingbird bones

afraid it might learn how to

cherish me too

Copyright © 2013 Jennifer Wagner

 

*Note:  Hawthorn berries, flowers and leaves are used as an herbal medicine in the treatment of heart and cardiovascular ailments.

Written for dVerse Poetics where Fred Rutherford has us keeping it brief!

Bloodless March

today

i can tell you what

a dried orange peel feels like

hanging on—

barely

wrapped in yesterday’s color

now a duller shade

possessed by winter

contained in the glass bowl of night

where mango and cinnamon

and cardamom

die on my lips scented citrus

nut hard and inedible

a shade

of passion’s fruit

wheeled out on gurneys

of seasons past

Copyright © 2013 Jennifer Wagner

Sandmorphs of the Amethyst Moon

The watchful eye of the bleeding heart moon

turned amethyst,

her vellum glowed in its gaze—

a canvas for creatures of prey.

Black sand morphed white on her toes,

confectioners’ sugar

to said creatures

making them voraciously bay.

Storm clouds rained dirt

for moments turned years

while she learned to make bloodcastles

with hellbowls of tears.

Sorry for what they’d done,

treacherous birds of root

flew from her tormented refrain

to nest and to watch from beaches of soot.

A pièce de résistance complete

in its unfinishing,

thus, she set off to hunt prey of her own.

She tortured a few, but could kill only time,

true more to herself than a rule.

She’d only been waiting on setting cement,

and Prince Charming’s repent

for having left her alone in the light of such an encouraging moon.

Copyright © 2013 Jennifer Wagner

Linking up to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads for Open Link Monday and OpenLinkNight at dVerse Poets Pub.

Have You Seen This? You Want To.

To This Day 

by Spoken Word Poet Shane Koyczan

Well worth every minute.  You will be moved.