Roughage by Martha Christina

What my mother
called the family
of greens she
stabbed with her
fork. She ate
with determination,
as though this might
be her last meal.
She had survived
what was known then
as a fatal disease, but
she emerged from its
fever, no longer able
to love. Pretend
you care, her mother
instructed, but even
before her illness,
my mother was not
a pretender. She
went on eating.



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.