Moon rises limber
over mountain cabin
lights eyes of coon
who laps water
Behind mountain cabin
hemlock shelters hound
who laps water
from spring-fed stream
Hemlock shelters hound
as clouds weep
over spring-fed stream
where minnows school
Clouds weep
over cabin and hemlock
where minnows school
rain lulls sleep
In cabin under hemlock
pooled dreams steep
rain lulls sleep
taps tin roof
As pooled dreams steep
hound’s hemlock freshens
taps soften tin roof
till morning’s heron soars
Nancy K. Jentsch is author of the poetry collection Between the Row (Shanti Arts, 2022) and the chapbooks Authorized Visitors (Cherry Grove Collections, 2017) and Frame and Mount the Sky (Finishing Line Press, 2017). Since 2008, when she began writing, her work has appeared in Braided Way, Crowstep Poetry Journal, Tiferet Journal, and Zingara Poetry Review. In 2020 she received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women. She retired after 37 years of teaching at Northern Kentucky University and finds a bounty of inspiration for her writing in her family and her rural home.