When the Diagnosis Comes
By Kendra Preston Leonard
when the diagnosis comes
it fits it clings
it feels slack
like sheets
flirting on a clothesline
in a breeze—
now bedding,
now ghosts—will I die
in strawberry time
it fits it clings
it feels slack
like sheets
flirting on a clothesline
in a breeze—
now bedding,
now ghosts—will I die
in strawberry time
or live to see leaves on bricks
or ice in the windows?
Kendra Preston Leonard is a poet, lyricist, and librettist, whose work is inspired by the local, historical, and mythopoeic. Her chapbook, Making Mythology, was published in 2020 by Louisiana Literature Press, and her work has appeared in vox poetica, lunch, the Waggle, and Lily Poetry Review, among other venues. Her novella-in-verse, Protectress, about the gorgons in the modern world, is forthcoming from Unsolicited Press in 2022. Leonard collaborates regularly with composers on new operas and songs. Follow her on Twitter at @K_Leonard_PhD or visit her site at https://kendraprestonleonard.hcommons.org/.