Cover Illustrations by John James Audubon by Martha Christina

On the front cover
of this small notebook
a Mourning Warbler
perches on the stem
of a red pheasant’s eye.

On the reverse
a Cerulean Warbler
clings to an unnamed
plant just above
the ISBN and barcode,
two 20th century features
that make it possible
for me to afford
Audubon illustrations.

I carried this notebook
to and from the hospital,
where I noted the name
and contact information
for the oncologist
my husband’s surgeon
recommended, and a list
of questions to ask
at the consultation.

It was normal for Audubon
to shoot and stuff his models;
species included in Birds of America
were plentiful; extinction far from his,
and his subscribers’ minds.

My husband’s oncologist
provided a treatment plan
that worked for four years.
That was the best he and
my husband’s body could do.

Six of the birds
Audubon rendered
are now extinct.

And, like the Carolina parakeet,
the passenger pigeon,
the Labrador duck,
the great auk,
the Eskimo curlew,
and the pinnated grouse,
my husband
is no longer sighted
in the places he loved.



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).