We are excited to announce the winner and runner up of the April 2025 Chattanooga Writers’ Guild Monthly Contest is Jenna Ziegler with the submissions “Fishing With Grandpa” and “You Call to Me in Night’s Languidity.” And we wish to thank our poetry judge Helga Kidder. Our theme this month was “swan song.”
Fishing With Grandpa
Dawn’s newborn light falls on us like mist,
like gravity, pale as mystery.
I imagine cupping my hand
holding the light in my palm,
—a tidepool in its own right—
the creases of my skin shimmering like riverbeds.
By our feet, cattails—
those long spinal cords bending in the breeze.
Mine bends too as I arc my back,
shoulder blades pressing together like mothwings.
The line, the hook, fly behind my body, then before it.
I almost feel guilty for disturbing the glassy water.
Beside me, my grandfather smiles,
salt-white teeth, glacier blue eyes.
Steam rises around us.
To the fish, we must look like apparitions,
like mountains hugged in fog.
We stand like that for a long while,
two stalagmites,
my cold fingers Appalachia-pale.
I breathe in the loam, the pond scum and duckweed
and the scent of sunlight on my skin.
From the East, two white swans fly toward us,
my heart slamming in time with their wingbeat,
their trumpets heralding the sunrise.
Mud rearranging beneath my shoes.
Grandpa’s belly laugh
as the swans flap above our heads.
Reeds waltzing. Sedge swaying.
And all around us, birdsong.
You Call to Me in Night’s Languidity
the rustle of sheets beneath your palms,
the eclipse of your pupils dilating.
You need not speak
and still I hear your call,
feel it in the ardent way your lips brush my skin.
Here, I shiver in the light of this boneshard
moon, this milky moon,
this moon the color of lace.
And when you do speak,
your words are tender as sheep
wool, spreading out to me
between the continents of our bodies.
In the moonlight, I see the snowdrops
of your teeth,
the camera-flash whites of your eyes,
the saltbright ring, the one you placed on my finger.
Your words glisten, like icicles, like stalactites
nestling in the caves of my eardrums.
Outside, there is moonglow and deerdance,
rainfall and treesway and swansong.
Inside, there is me and there is you,
limestone in the starlight.
Jenna Ziegler is a poet from the space between the mountains and sea of Northern California. Her work, which explores themes of grief and hope, the solace of nature, and what it means to be human, is featured in Seaside Gothic, The Walnut Branch, and Macrame Literary Journal. When she’s not writing, you’ll probably find her playing sand volleyball, visiting local coffee shops with her writing group, or reading with her rescue cat, Newbert. She now lives in Chattanooga with her husband Tyler. You can connect with Jenna through her website at jtzieglerauthor.com.
Instagram: @jtzieglerauthor
Facebook: @jtzieglerauthor
The Monthly Contests rotate through a pattern of Poetry, Fiction, and Creative Nonfiction throughout the year, with a new theme each month. Go to the 2025 Monthly Contest Series Info page to view the genre and theme for each month. Fiction submissions on “Knots” are open until May 31.
This contest is free to enter for members of the Chattanooga Writers’ Guild. To become a member, click HERE
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