All Brains and Thumbs

an arched branch fell
with the first winter storm,
now anchored by inch
after inch of snow—a cardinal’s
perch where he awaits
a place at the feeder,
keeps clenched claws dry

if only I, with my brain-stuffed skull
and opposable thumbs could
grasp at chance as
firmly as he





Nancy Jentsch teaches German and Spanish at Northern Kentucky University. Her poetry and short fiction have appeared in the Aurorean, For a Better World: Poems and Drawings on Peace and Justice, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Postcard Poems and Prose and The Whistling Fire. She enjoys reading, traveling, knitting and Sudoku.