Untamed Sweetness
By Nancy Jentsch
Black raspberries ripen wild at creekâs edge
my eyes close, lips tingle
to memories of brimming backyard bushes.
These untended berry-gems hide tiny
behind stickers beyond reach.
I bend the canes to mine the ready flesh
lest deer or songbirds steal
the pear-fed coyote plunder.
At days end, red-lipped,
I leave a fruit or two of untamed sweetness
like words that stray from verses
and still are pearls.
Nancy Jentsch has taught German and Spanish at Northern Kentucky University for over 30 years. She has published numerous scholarly articles and
her short fiction and poetry have appeared in journals such as The Journal
of Kentucky Studies, the Aurorean, Postcard Poems and Prose and The
Whistling Fire.years.