Waiting by Martha Christina

Small songbirds crowd
the feeders: finches, a pair
of Carolina wrens, a solitary
junco. Three squirrels join
them at the old stump, strewn
with wild bird seed. . .as if
they weren’t all wild.

The church clock four blocks
away strikes noon. “By noon,”
the surgeon said, “your mom
should be back in her room
and lucid.”

The birds abandon the hanging
feeder, leave it swinging in their
abrupt departure. A crow lands,
folds its dark wings, paces
among the spilled seeds.



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. Born and raised in Indiana, she now lives in Bristol, Rhode Island.