Authorized Visitors

Hoof prints by the sign
“Authorized Visitors Only”
told me there had been other
trespassers here.
Would the doe have been prosecuted
the doe who wanted a cool sip
of river water before climbing
the bank to birth a fawn?
Are birds overhead
required to change their love song
to a call of warning
on their visaless flight?
Could the sun’s lawyers plead for leniency
though their client shines above the law
joins sand and wind to erase
all signs of words?
What about the water
transgressing the sand
at the sign’s edge
ridging a mat
of unparalleled undulations
to welcome visitors
authorized or not?






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.