The Receding Christmas

All those Christmas gifts​...
What remains of them is
​the slightly withered wrapping,
​the memories.

Their meaning and worth
saved in sunset-yellow cases,
as scents.
The whiffs I captured
through an untrained nose
​as a child,
and a trained ​Google searcher
​as a grown-up,
​are all neatly stacked.
​With them,
​I satiate, in futility,
​a life-evolved taste for posterity.

And, as a golden sunset
reminds me of
a receding Christmas​ vibe,
I seek the scent this year.
​For that whiff of longing.
​Oh, and a desire for belonging.

-- Leslie 

The Fall

The season has a bit

more than the smog

that fills my lungs;

creeping through the
fickle filters I put up

to fight its advances.

It’s relentless, fast

and eases me into bed,

under layers of cotton;

and, a bit of lycra, of late;

as I make love, monitor and

chronicle the flame with a Google app.

The Unwritten Word!

The Christmas I feel here,
rising from the bushes,
where they walk,
Eden is far, a mirage;
but they walk... Towards home,
towards nothing!

And they all take that trail,
thank their God,
and they shop in joy
for they've mastered
the written word
in their holy book.
But it's too dark to read
the unwritten word,
their constitution,
in their daily lives.

It's Christmas but,
in Zimbabwe...

Bible sale on a pavement in Harare



The Christian

I looked down,

so did they;

and saw this lone Christian,

bearing a cross,

in the broken line

under the pillars

that support families

in the NCR.

He got a winter break,

while his master,

a man of faith,

was having his free breakfast.

Dark Matter

I needed this today,

yes I did, a darker shade;

this fallen grid grants my wish

and it's still not Christmas yet.

I lay bare, steadying my nerves,

urging the only truth I know

to embalm me gently, slowly,

head to toe, it's my coffin.

It began... a pale white hue,

life drains from my eyes;

then I see dark red,

but that blood thins out too.. It's emptiness!

No! No... This flash blinds me,

drags me away, far from rest,

from silence, from my home;

to face 'em all, the only reality.