The Same by Martha Christina

When asked “How’s your
mother?” by those who’d
known her before her
illness, when she was
lovely and lovable. I
learned to say “the
same.” But that was
not to say she was
as she’d been before her
illness, not my father’s
lovely wife, not my
lovable mother. I meant
she was the only way
I knew her: completely
changed; that same.



Martha Christina has published two collections: Staying Found (Fleur-de-lis Press) and Against Detachment (Pecan Grove Press). Her work appears in earlier issues of Red Eft Review, and recently in Star 82 Review, Crab Orchard Review, and Tiny Seed Journal’s Pollinator Project. Born and raised in Indiana, she now lives in Bristol, Rhode Island.