The Shattering
There is a place
the shattering happens
in answer to time.
Unblemished eggs
jostle and coddled
chicks hone their
egg teeth, scarring
shells with cracks
that matter—bloodless
struggle unveils
simple oval homes
as sacred.
With chicks’ first breath
fractured shards settle,
find forgiveness.
Since beginning to write in 2008, Nancy Jentsch‘s work has appeared in journals such as Still: The Journal and Braided Way. In 2020, she received an Artist Enrichment Grant from the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the resulting collection, Between the Rows, debuted in 2022. Her current writing project involves reinvestigating genealogical information she unearthed in the pre-computer 1980s. She has retired after 37 years of teaching and finds a bounty of inspiration in her family and her rural home.
Amethyst Review 