Les Bernstein is an award-winning poet and anthologist whose poems have appeared in journals and anthologies in the U.S. and internationally. Her full-length book, Loose Magic, was reviewed by the Los Angeles Review of Books and is available on Amazon.
Excalibur
Les Bernstein
Issue 79, Winter 2025
someplace in the here
where we live
an autumn leaf of a woman
tripoded with an aluminum cane
asks if I live nearby
I live mostly in my head
adjusting memories
inventing futures
conversing with ghosts
little use for bright certainty
orbited by numberless impossibilities
she asks where to buy
a battery for her watch
her time has stopped
and is running out
I say pharmacy
for chemistry and chance
we smile
leaning on her cane
she inches her stooped way
I wish I had an answer
for all the outwardly ordinary details
that make up a life
but my sword
is still stuck in the stone
~
The Much More
Les Bernstein
Featured, Issue 56, Spring 2019
when the world was new
they planted a flag in the much more
spread themselves into the future
below a limitless sky
they built their home
with care and optimism
ruddy with trust in sunny days
and shiny well being
they grew to other bigger homes
but they were vandalized by time
the truth of shortening days
spread its substantive shadow
as walls of memories crumbled
they had to learn to live lightly
their home now becoming
dust powder bone
there is nothing unique in this story
or life's commanding gravitational pull
they held hands tightly
for as long
as they could