passionflower

like winter sun warming the crisp outline 
of evergreens on frost’s last kiss,

like an impression of stars 
bursting in indigo nightframe,

like orion, swift-slaying, swaying
between boughs,

she is electric, blue-jazz summer sky,
ricocheting

with all the fierce beauty 
of a flowering storm


© 2026 jennifer wagner

q44: flower

photo © jennifer wagner, from las noches de las luminarias, desert botanical garden, phoenix, az