At the Rokerij

 

That kiss just outside

the speakeasy

left me speechless.

 

It was dark inside, lit by candles,

and the heavy door, as an ancient time portal,

shut snug when we were ushered in.

 

I remember the way you looked at me,

and all the things you whispered,

sitting there caressing

my sandaled foot.

 

Afterward,

when we were left alone

to climb the hidden stair,

 

your hands were warm

and the stones cool

against my back.

 

You’ve always known what to say

and how to say it to me,

with your eyes dark,

glittering, cerulean coins—

 

and still now, in the corridor

to the dragon’s lair,

milky smoke rising from your nostrils,

 

leading me, willing sacrifice

in white velvet,

to everyday heaven.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

dVerse OLN

 

When you kiss the same guy for 26 years, and still want to.

Mariner's Astrolabe

 

I’ve lost all sweetness

that used to drip

off my tongue,

 

and you harbor

a hive of ghosts

of my wrongs.

 

I can’t see my way out of this,

when they’ve come out

of your mouth like fog.

 

So, I am lost,

oceanside

of us,

the sky a darkening bruise,

 

no astrolabe,

no lighthouse,

 

to the spent-match orb

you call

your heart.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

 

Since I, somewhat jokingly, challenged Shay to write a poem about something she claimed she had nothing to say about (astrolabes), I felt it was only fair if I do it, too.

Teddy-bear Cholla

 

Out in the desert,

where you left me,

I turned to cholla.

 

I looked soft to touch,

but anyone who tried

got the wicked barb

you left behind.

 

I crawled my way

across México,

not once,

but twice—

 

where nurses

exchanged the sweet mints

in my purse

to meds.

 

I fled,

and found myself again—

peering into the

the dark, dewy eyes

of children

selling chicle

on dirt roads

near the freeway

where the poems lay.

 

I gave all my money, eagerly,

into their beautiful brown hands.

 

Now, the dive bar,

turned used bookstore,

holds my chair

with a well-read copy of

The Captain’s Verses—

 

my pirate saying,

pull up, mi rama robada,

 

I’m buying.

 

 

© 2024 Jennifer Wagner

 

Teddy-bear cholla has a soft, cuddly appearance, but is quite a prickly cactus.

“rama robada” is a reference to Pablo Neruda’s poem, “La Rama Robada” (“The Stolen Branch”) in The Captain’s Verses.

 

For Fireblossom’s Word Garden

and

dverse Poetics:  Left in the Lurch