Lesley S. King

On a moonless night it seems they harm me that mate sister brother mother father friend neighbor stranger.   With a look a word a finger a fist— slayed.   But the Beloved reveals no thing no one can.   Soul in its glory is impervious as the sky.   Only I through what I hold dear […]

On an icy winter day I step out of the bank and stop fast. There in front of me shuffles my mother. I see her glossy, silver hair, red wool coat and body hunched over a walker. My heart thuds in my chest. It’s an apparition, a ghost! My mother passed away more than a […]

Please enjoy this poem and image by Ariana Harley Naked on the Throne I have worn the costume of politician beggar housewife doctor of killer soldier cook and thief. You have known me as mother lover child stranger. But I don’t want to play Halloween any longer. Teacher, deafen my ears to finally hear Sound. […]

I will always want you The Beloved says to me. I think back to my mother who didn’t When I was born The lovers who did But then left or I left them The employers who did But paid little and pushed hard And then disappeared The friends who I no longer see The wine […]

I pull the little hand-carved Christ figurine from the box and place it in the manger. Next I find Mary and Joseph and set them on either side of the child’s tiny crib. As I do this my heart both tugs downward and rises upward. It’s an odd bitter sweetness on this snowy December evening. […]

I call on the Beloved and easily sign my name on an agreement to lease out my late mother’s house. While the new tenants sign, I glance at the kitchen where we stand, its white counter and clean paint. Though darkness settles out the window, here all is bright. But later, back at my own […]

I walk room-to-room with a willowy woman who loves her cats. As we look over the garage, she talks of them, the ones from her past, who have died, and the two in her present life, who remind her of the past ones. She ticks off their names, so many cats that I grow confused. […]

I stand within my late mother’s empty bedroom, where the scent of mildew taints the air. I note the empty wall where the TV hung and the four indentations on the carpet where the bed sat. Only a few piles of miscellaneous things clutter the floor. Most absent is the beautiful being with whom I […]

My mind feared facing life after my mother passed on to her next adventure. However, I’ve come to see that when I stay with the Beloved, the moments of sadness come and I cry and then they go. I stay in the now and let them pass like waves. They soften me and open my […]

It’s Saturday night, and just as I settle under the bed covers, the phone rings. I pick up and hear the voice of my mother’s caregiver. “She has a nosebleed that’s not stopping.” I call on the Beloved. My mom comes on the line. “I’m pressing the button,” she says, meaning her Lifeline, a signal […]