winter sakura

 

all i wore

was the solid ruby

 

on my breastbone

 

and the moonlight

upon my skin

 

and your hands

sent to measure me

 

and my scars

 

fading from pink

to white

 

 

© 2024 jennifer wagner

Poetry

When you found me

I was face up in snow,

 

crows pecking my neck,

 

my voice box removed

in bloody clumps around me,

 

my eyes staring straight up

at clouds meant for someone else’s rain.

 

But you

 

enclosed my hand around a lightning bolt

and I stood up—

 

my voice a thunderclap

scattering dark birds to the storm-crackled sky.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

What is "it" about Poetry?

 

Hatch

I was the birdling

deep inside the egg

nestled down in mud.

 

Wind blew against

the misshapen shell—

so ugly and spotted it was beautiful.

 

Stirring, I set to work—

tip, tap, click, clack—

a bruised spot forming

from the egg tooth

before the gaping hole revealed me.

 

No song, just sweat and grit,

shell splattered with shit,

but in the midst of it—

ugly and alive and beautiful.

 

 

© 2023 Jennifer Wagner

 

 

 

Desperate Poets:  Desperate Voicings (Creative Method)