Patience by Martha Christina

It’s the old name
of the card game
she calls “solitaire.”

Solitare, she thinks,
is a name that suits
her now. But when

the new widow
clears her kitchen table,
night after night,

and lays out hand
after hand, after hand,
she acknowledges

the old name, and
how much
is required now.



Martha Christina is a frequent contributor to Brevities. Longer work appears in Innisfree Poetry Journal, Naugatuck River Review, earlier postings of Red Eft Review, and most recently in Star 82 Review, and Crab Orchard Review. She has published two collections: Staying Found (Fleur-de-lis Press) and Against Detachment (Pecan Grove Press).