Mistaken by Martha Christina

Spatzies
my German
aunt called
house sparrows,
and shooed them
away from her
feeder. She had
other names for
certain local boys
she likewise shooed
away from me,
her visiting niece.

But it was my
first cousin
she should have
been wary of,
the way we turned
to one another
under water
at Barkers’ Lake,
opened our look-alike
blue eyes, and more.



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).