JENNY KELLY WAGNER

Looking Deeply Into the Rain (for Germaine)

September 24, 2022 Uncategorized

This morning I woke up to a circle of prayersThe news:After one final champagne toastEncircled in loveYou added your last breath to the smokeRising from the campfire towards the EtherWinter moonWinter stars I was sitting outside last night tooNot quite so courageouslyIt’s warm here, even late at nightI bathed in the sweet fragrance ofThe climbing tangle of jasmine my brother plantedGazing at the same moonTo the sound of horse hooves on pavementSheep bleating at nightAnd the constant, repetitive sound ofRead More

The Farmhouse and the Road

July 7, 2022 Uncategorized

Years later, late at nightYou sit in a rocking chairKnitting in front of the fireSkeins of dark blue woolSpilling over into the wicker basket You don’t look downYour fingers are nimble and practicedYou’ve learned to keepMany things together at once The fire has burned down to coalsDishes long since washedLeftover food put awayFloor swept, kitchen table wiped down. Baby and Dad are asleepHe forgot his reading glassesOn the floor next to the couchYou pick them up with a small smileRead More

Not Pictured (Roe)

July 3, 2022 Uncategorized

I count my blessings everydayMy daughter is a miracleI wanted thisPrayed for thisWholehearted chose motherhood We strive to teach our kids their feelings are validBut 75% of what parents feel isNot fit for public consumption I am tiredOf filtering my feelingsUntil they are digestible for you I’m also starting to think it’s irresponsiblePerhaps even dangerousTo post those cute Instagram photosWithout “not pictured” in the caption I gave birth to a miracleA piece of my own heartLiving outside my bodyOnly whenRead More

Panacea

December 30, 2021 Uncategorized

I’d all but stopped writing Because all my poems were about longing And since you were born I haven’t longed for anything Babies are sweet and small and within arm’s reach Mama pulls you close to suckle you To complete the circle and feel totally whole Her blood is your milk and she becomes the Song of Being The answer to everything But time doesn’t listen or keep us Sweetly suspended I imagine myself cradling you In a white rockingRead More

Thoughts on the Sonko Protests from an American woman in Senegal

March 6, 2021 Uncategorized

I’ve felt the need to share more context for my friends living outside Senegal on the protests that have been happening this week. It’s all too easy to get caught up in how these things affect us personally. I haven’t been able to buy diapers because the supermarket was closed. I missed a work meeting because of protests in front of our office. I wanted to zoom out and provide some broader historical context for people interested in learning moreRead More

A Lullaby for Better Circumstances

July 15, 2020 Uncategorized

In a world that becomes safe again You are still my daughter But we live on a grassy hill And on rainy mornings we step outside Into a garden and play with earthworms coming up from the fertile soil In a world that becomes safe again Grandmothers and grandfathers Pass you around with wrinkled hands Mooning over your baby laugh Their cups running over with unsolicited advice While your exhausted mother Tries to catch a few winks in the nextRead More

On Paper

June 1, 2019 Uncategorized

When you fall in love with someone One of the first things you fall in love with Is their name The way it looks written over and over On paper First middle last An incantation that grows more beloved with time Until it’s almost too precious to say out loud So you find new ways of addressing each other in public That sound less intimate than a tender heart being slowly undressed And you save the real thing for thoseRead More

west african proverb (a tribute to Iván Nogales)

April 4, 2019 Uncategorized

A big tree has fallen. i can see you in my mind’s eye as you were in life: a gnarled, resplendent oak tree larger than life a father for orphans your roots cracking through barrio concrete your trunk twirling inexorably upward through the bones of the metal airport like a circus ballerina leaping in slow motion your roots sucking thirstily at the waters under her paved skin her topsoil a migrated memory of failed altiplano crops your gnarled hands refusingRead More

All the lives at once…

November 4, 2018 Uncategorized

Sitting in the cafe I get overwhelming crushes on Everyone who is remotely nice to me Including the guy who gives me A polite closed-lipped grimace (The kind that passes for a smile around here) When I trip over his power cord On the way to the bathroom I apologize to his earbuds I imagine his life as one million different plot lines None of us are alone in here Each phone is an esteemed companion Sitting on the tableRead More

the fall

October 4, 2018 Uncategorized

on a quiet day in autumn with no other humans in sight mass extinction doesn’t sound that depressing to me coming to terms with the End is really just coming to terms with your death the end of your children the possibility that none of this will exist yep. I was already working on that one I see that someone planted pumpkins in the alleyway belonging to nobody fall is ending before it has time to get started kind ofRead More

Cultural Adjustment

July 8, 2018 Uncategorized

Last night I dreamed that it was Friday And that Time was a neighborhood restaurant Where I’d been eating dinner every Friday since I was born I had already ordered dinner and it was taking An Eternity for my food to arrive. Okay. To be clear, I had more than one dream. It was a painted sequence of dreams Stacked together like Russian matryoshka dolls. The small dream waking up Within the medium dream within the large dream My friendRead More

Two Ladies Living Alone Together

April 6, 2018 Uncategorized

You got your start in a Port town as a Seashore girl Waiting hopefully for the next sailor boy With your freshly picked armful of Forevers Of course they were (Just boys) and the Forevers were Too heavy for them But whether out of politeness or cruelty They tried on the weight of it Like an understudy trying on a leading role Then Like scared neighborhood boys afraid to Own up to breaking a window They ran off Without soRead More

Watered Down (Won’t Be)

February 12, 2018 Uncategorized

I. Current, River, Old Age (Oneness) We find ourselves on the top of the mountain Me and Z and the man who’s so old his teeth are falling out The old man looks at me and Z, and says, like a little kid “Let’s hide a piece of paper in these rocks… then the next one of us who comes here will take it out and sign it, and write the date” And so we inscribe our immortality Onto theRead More

Froggy Went A-Courtin’

December 15, 2017 Uncategorized

Dear Greg and Ramphai, In my heart there lives A little frog called Passion Crazy little dude, totally irresponsible Wild with hope and a quicksilver temper He sees you two and does backflips all day Until he can no longer move from exhaustion This crazy little frog Jumps off cliffs for Love Pours his heart out for Beauty Is constantly emptying his little Froggy eyes with sweet tears of grief Probably one day Passion's shrill singing voice Will grow hoarseRead More

Jenny the Writer | Traveler | Dancer | Coach | Mother | Yogini | Human