Saturday, March 2, 2013

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!


Friday, March 1, 2013

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