Lesley S. King

The lizard lifts high on his legs and sprints alongside your bike. His pointed nose and yellow stripes blur, as he churns up the dust. The raven swoops low over your shoulder. Her wings say whoosh, whoosh as she breaks open the sky. The water spider skates on an invisible membrane. His Martian shadow dances […]

  The dog you rescued with a scar on her brow  wags her tail and looks up at you, dark eyes shining mouth curved in a little smile.   But that lonely road where you found her limping stays branded on her heart.   In a tough moment, as she huddles in the corner wrapped in […]

Out of seemingly nowhere it comes a dust devil racing across the desert swirling up an image from a week, a month— ten, twenty, thirty years ago.   It’s suddenly alive, a fighting bull breathing fire: the thing your mate or child or mother said or did or didn’t say or do that knocked you to […]

Oh, blessed asteroid hurtling toward Earth please annihilate me.   Destroy the piranhas that gnaw on my heart. Obliterate the gnats that buzz in my head.   “Really?” a voice within whispers. “What if you simply surrender, let go of the lower concerns you hold so dear?”   I call out for help, chant and […]

  I say goodbye to a doll who wears a cotton dress and a pine-green coat her hair cut in one spot down to the roots, my 8-year-old attempt at being a hairdresser.   I also wave farewell to a teddy bear who I used hold in the night. He once played music but for […]

  That challenge you face today with your mate or employer, your bank account or health, it is an egg.   It’s not just part of an omelet, though, or a scramble with onions and peppers.   It is more like a finch or hummingbird egg. One day the chick will peck its way free […]

Out here in the far reaches of creation, I sail the Cosmic seas between stars.   Like Voyager as it swings past Jupiter, frolics among Saturn’s rings, and discovers Titan’s thick blue haze, I relish life’s encounters as they arise within.   Each one brightens me, lightens me and all of creation as well.   Now, […]

  It drifts in from the west a cloud, dark and churning. Sitting on a ridge top, we watch its drunken steps as it careens toward us.   Do we hunker down? Do we run for cover?   We stay still trusting the promise hidden within its vapor.   From my lips escapes a prayer: Please […]

Just now, under the frozen earth the seed awakens. Its heart begins a faint thump, thump, and its tiny hands tucked in tight tremble with a life ready to burst forth in spring.   So do I, kissed by a warming sun feel the pulse of new energy beat within.   What do I do […]

The pain in my stomach the wrangling with my neighbor the bills the restless winter nights, these are the water in which I learn to swim.   “Can’t I just stand on shore while You teach me?” the mind pleads.   “No.”   I dive in so the Beloved can show me how easily I […]