Consider

Consider

Leslie Newton

If she had been tethered,
the tips her budding leaves like wrists cuffed
and the lily labored upward from the earth,
straining against gravity and dirt. 

If she slaved to spin her own petals
and weave white and cream and gold, piercing
her thumb blood red again while watching 
for the sunset in her peripherals.

If she stretched her neck
to touch the light sooner, and tendons snapped,
vessels burst as she spread her fingers wider to clothe
the field in lace–

just to fade
at the appointed hour, the exact day
just as it always was,
nothing changed.

---

Leslie Newton
Poet

Leslie lives in Kansas City with her dog and runs a Writing Studio at a local community college. Leslie earned her M.A. in English from the University of Tulsa and her B.A. in English from Huntington University. She has taught English, Writing, and Literature at a variety of educational institutions at home and abroad, and she is indebted to her long-standing, creative friends who have given heaps of feedback over the years. Leslie has published poetry in Time of Singing and Shot Glass Journal.

Photography by Damir Mijailovic