August 28, 2013

Les Bernstein



In Our Story


enclosed within
the high grey wall of late years
miles of words shift underfoot
clouds creak and groan

maps fail a horizontal plain
landmarks vanish
geography bends

in this punch of a story
gods beg devotion
as they thin the herd

time is a ghosted guide
weightlessly wandering the future
taking us where we least expect



Unvarnished


my mother said
when the morning sky is pink
the circus will come to town

my mother never explained
moon splattered stories
laid out frame by frame
edges smoothed and tucked away

my mother never believed
the hazy terrain of
theories 
diagnoses 
predictions

my mother trusted
life's murky plot
held in service
of an unvarnished reality

my mother expected
night to fall hard
the circus
to move on

CP

Les Bernstein lives with her very large family in Mill Valley, CA. She has been published in publications in the U.S. and Europe. She has two chapbooks published by Finishing Line Press. This info is as personal as it gets.

No comments: