Strength by Martha Christina

The young squirrel
at the bird feeder
can get no higher
than the first perch.
It clings there with
its front paws, eats
in a frenzy while
its back feet slip
down the pole.

I watch its shoulders
as it pulls itself up
again and again,
the strength of those
muscles like Janey’s,
a polio survivor.

Stronger than any
of the boys in our
third grade class,
she pulled herself
up on the chinning
bar, swung from
rung to rung on
the parallel bars
while her wrist
crutches formed
an X on the ground,
marking that spot
where no one
could match
or out-do her.



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).