BILL LESLIE

 

 

Pink Dress

 

In my dream I’m wearing a pink dress and the fabric

is cool and cottony against my skin.

In this dream, I am waiting

and I hear thunder in the distance

and someone singing a sad, old love song.

The afternoon is thrumming with a distant storm.

we see what we want to see.

my brother said, “you don’t care for prayer, do you?”

and he asked me, “where is god?”

I turned my hands to the sky like radio telescopes

I said, I want to believe, I do

But all I hear is the constant hum:

cosmic background radiation,

the low rumble of distant thunder,

and the steady buzz of the heat death of the universe.

I am now a girl in a black dress.

Oh, I see the look in your eyes.

it’s just a kink -- there’s no need to worry

I sway a little as I wait for the rain to come

One hand on my chest and the other on myself.

I am swaying a little as the storm comes in.

The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. †

Suddenly I am back in my dream and my pink dress

lays cool and cottony against my skin

I hear some far-off music playing, soft and sad

while the air tastes like thunder in the afternoon.

Can I ever remember writing a happy song?

where God smiles down on the wide green land

and the old grey poet wakes from his restless sleep?

† Gautama Buddha

 

For E

 

You never believed me when

I said I was sorry.

Even when I held your broken heart

in my bloody hands.

And when you saw my future

In the stars and planets

did you know, could you see,

where we would be now?

The first night we spent together

And I held you to me, you whispered,

“don’t fall in love with me”

It was just another way I failed you.

I remember that bright, white hot,

terrible day, when we saw

our hearts laid bare on

the new life inside you.

In that bright, bright sunshine

all my words were meaningless.

One bond broken, another made,

what was the difference?

We are but bare photons of light,

speeding away, across the sky

quantum particles,

entangled,

tethered by grief.

A strange phenomenon:

Spooky action at a distance.

 

BILL LESLIE

 

BILL LESLIE: Bill is a very recently retired Technology professional. He is now hoping to devote himself to writing full-time. He is deeply passionate about writing poetry and learning to be a better poet.  He also plans to devote himself to his long-time other passion: photography. He loves taking photographs of birds and nature, as well as of his large, loving family and their many, many pets.  Bill identifies as a woke, non-binary, radical, feminist lesbian; trapped in the body of a Southern white boy. Be forewarned. This is what he believes: Science is Real. Black Lives Matter. No Human is Illegal. Love is Love is Love. Women's Rights are Human Rights. Kindness is Everything. Bill was born in Columbia, SC and has lived in North Carolina for the past 25 years. Attended the University of South Carolina where he studied Media Arts and Film. He dreamed of being a great film director. He finally graduated from the Univ. of Pheonix with a Bachelor of Science in Technology and has worked in that field for many years. He wears his politics on his sleeve. An unapologetic feminist and a proud Progressive; he is fiercely pro-choice, a committed supporter and ally for LGBTQ and civil rights. He is still very much a student learning how to write poetry, but it brings him great joy.