Fall at the Playground by Martha Christina

Backs to the wind
we watch our young
granddaughters swing

the same swings
we bailed out of
as little girls,
skinning our knees,
but not crying.

Our families are
home for Thanksgiving,
and so we exchange a few
sentences about pies
and brining turkeys,
then: her husband's stents,
my husband's chemo.

"It will be better in the spring,"
she says, and we wipe
our runny noses on our sleeves,
although we know better.



Martha Christina is a frequent contributor to Brevities. Longer work appears recently or is forthcoming in Bryant Literary Review, Muse Literary Journal, Naugatuck River Review, and in earlier postings of Red Eft Review. Her second collection, Against Detachment, was published in April by Pecan Grove Press.