Nancy K. Jentsch
All My Days
This egg-warm day slips
into bed with me
like a sighing shadow
welcomed by a blanket
of yesterdays
who wait, still and smooth,
till one, tickled
by my toe twitch
stretches, twists
seeks out my sleeping mind.
My fifth birthday, perhaps?
Loud with party hats
and pony-tail parades.
Or an ordinary Thursday?
A filigree whisper
free as steam
leaving jasmine tea.
Now and again that October day
stirs, its wet-wool weight
robs my lungs of air
coats me in shivers
then sulks in its bolthole
like cold coffee grounds.
How many more
will bed with me
till we are borne away
as feathers, cushioned
by my last sigh?
One Concert Grand in Gaza
One concert grand
and one music school
can't stitch the wounds
of thousands of greasy guns
of streets scalded by spite
families dismembered
of spring curfewed by fire
children’s dreams gagged
But imagine Gaza
with just one gun
and thousands of pianos
playing as gently
as the first spring rain
filling a cup
that had forgotten
it could hold water
NANCY K. JENTSCH has taught German and Spanish at Northern Kentucky University for over 30 years. She has published numerous scholarly articles and her short fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as The Journal of Kentucky Studies, the Aurorean, Postcard Poems and Prose, *82 Review and Masque & Spectacle. |