Jessica Whipple is a writer for adults and children. Her poetry has been published by One Art, Sledgehammer Lit, Nurture, and Ember; another is forthcoming in Ekstasis. Her debut picture book titled ENOUGH will be published in Fall 2022 by Tilbury House. Jessica has always enjoyed writing and reading poetry. To read more of her work, visit www.AuthorJessicaWhipple.com or follow her on Twitter @JessicaWhippl17.
A Parent’s Shame
She grips a chunk of chalk in her fistscratches onto black construction paperfamiliar fury of scribbles:a moon todayyesterday, an egg someone’s headside by side, two are apples. Sometimesthe picture isn’t the pointit’s powder on palmswows and ooohs and beautifulsfingers and focus and finishingit’s preschool prideit’s fine-motor joy neither of us realizingshe’s tall enough nowto see into …