Dancing Goodbye
by Leslie Dianne
Listen
was all I could do
to the soft inhale
of life
The sheets smooth
walls moon white
the machines wheezing
the blood dripping constant
You are practicing
letting go of time
The atmosphere is full
of memory and there
we are dancing together
Yesterday and tomorrow
are drifting away
leaving us in
the rolling rhythms
of now
And in the silence
that remains when you release
your breath
I dance your goodbye
How to Live
by Leslie Dianne
This is how to live
dream and don’t shut your eyes
put your hands out in front of you
not to stop your fall
but to sharpen the dive
and plummet
then spread your arms
let the sky
support you
the concrete will shiver
and lose its place
and you will find yours
in flight
in the diving dream
that should be done
every day of your life
—
Leslie McGriff (Leslie Dianne) is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, playwright and performer whose work has been acclaimed internationally in places such as the Harrogate Fringe Festival in Great Britain, The International Arts Festival in Tuscany, Italy and at La Mama, ETC in New York City. Her stage plays have been produced in NYC at The American Theater of Actors, The Raw Space, The Puerto Rican Traveling Theater and The Lamb’s Theater. Her poems have appeared or currently appear in The Pangolin Review, Soft Cartel, Esthetic Apostle, PopShot, Ink and Voices, S/tick, Rue Scribe and Furtive Dalliance and are forthcoming in RAW Journal of Arts and Vita Brevis.