(Title from “Hay” by Maurice Manning) 

I hear a knot of jocularity
in morning birdsong
dream of sweet clover yet to bloom.
For you it’s only worried birds
whose cares steep and stagnate
with yours as in larvaed rain barrels.

I gasp at first spring blooms
kneel by Pheasant Eyes I planted
the day of Rhonda’s surgery.
reborn each spring as she was that May day
For you the flower beds jeer with weeds
that paralyze your tidy mind

I thrill at succulents swabbed soft with rain
that grow undaunted by stones
strewn on slope’s canvas.
If only you could let them fill your day’s page
Instead of it being a kind of nothing
prominently there instead?
 

Nancy K. Jentsch has taught for over thirty-five years at Northern Kentucky University. She has published scholarly articles, short fiction and poetry in journals such as Blinders, Eclectica and Journal of Kentucky Studies. Her chapbook, Authorized Visitors, and seven ekphrastic poems in the chapbook Frame and Mount the Sky were published in 2017.