Leigh Fisher: 3 Poems
CONDUCT
Visited home today
to hear of all the latest deaths
Neighbors and old friends
flickering out like the light
swaying up and down
on a buoy out at sea
The connection giving life
fading out as the wires
Disconnect
DO NOT SPEAK
It’s a place of silence
all but the mechanical whir
Words don’t form
while the tracks wear down
Lights shine bright
like they would upon actors
performing on a stage
But no soliloquies
are uttered here
It’s an unspoken law
to only talk to the person
sitting right beside you,
mere inches away,
if you walked together
as you embarked onboard
But while you’re side by side
on two seats adjacent
close as lovers sleeping
in their shared bed at night
Neither of you say a word
since that’s the silent law
The opportunity lost
on a train with no seats open
GOOD FOR YOU
“It'll be good for you,”
they say it like a promise
She simply nods her head and agrees,
since that’s all that they expect of her
She has no reason to fight or say no
and she won’t have to deliver bread
ever again
“He’s gotten a good job, he can take care of you,”
As they say these things,
she’s sure it’s true
but it doesn’t change
that she still feels nothing
“All he wants are a few children in return.”
she knows she should be like her mother
think pragmatically
perhaps the callouses on her hands will soften
“At least I’ve met him before,”
she murmurs as she climbs the stairs
“I know he’s a kind man,”
she thinks, with five loaves on her shoulder
as she walks faster up the hill
“He’s quiet, he doesn’t speak much…”
she continues to think
she starts walking a little faster,
darting around the cracks in the old pavement
But thought makes her afraid
thinking of going to live with this man
what she must do for this man
when they’re alone
“I’ll manage somehow,” she whispers aloud
They’ll pass time in a quiet, little house
where all they share
is the language they speak
and the country they came from
“I’ll manage somehow,” she repeats,
as she reaches the top of the hill
it’s tiring to tackle the upward incline
but going down also has its challenges
maintaining balance
while plummeting downward
like a skydiver jumping into fate
“I may never care for him, but it’s like they say; it’ll be good for me.”
Leigh Fisher is from Neptune. No, not the eighth-farthest planet from the sun, but from the city in New Jersey. She is a historical fiction enthusiast, with an avid interest in Chinese history. She has been published in Five 2 One Magazine, The Missing Slate, Rising Phoenix Press, and others. She can be found as @SleeplessAuthoress on Instagram and @SleeplessAuthor on Twitter.